Volunteer medical students celebrate fifth anniversary of pre-hospital response scheme with North East Ambulance Service

The initiative is a partnership between North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) and Newcastle University to train medical students to volunteer as the Trust’s community first responder scheme.

The scheme, which launched in 2020, encourages medical students to volunteer their time to provide lifesaving support to people in an emergency whilst an ambulance is travelling, whilst helping their local student community, as well as the wider city too.

Over the past five years NEAS has trained 96 medical students and there are currently twelve who are active now. CFRs attend medical emergencies as well as cardiac arrests. Responders operate across the whole of the North East in both rural and urban areas and are a crucial part of the chain of survival.

Across the wider region, NEAS supports an additional 112 community first responders who have each undergone a training course, as well as NEAS induction and statutory & mandatory training. The students follow the same training and are then further trained on life-saving equipment, such as defibrillators.

In 2024/25, NEAS trained 112 community first responders who are based across the region. Over the last year they have attended 1,850 incidents and collectively volunteered over 41,000 hours for the service in 2024/25 equating to 1,715 days.

Paul Brolly, first responder coordinator at NEAS, said: “It is incredibly rewarding to see this scheme, in partnership with Newcastle University, mark its five-year anniversary.

“The community first responder role is crucial in providing early interventions in the first minutes of an emergency. Living within the communities they serve, they can often be on scene almost immediately, providing basic life support, observations and initial treatment. They also often remain on scene, offering a much-appreciated extra pair of hands to our crews.

“The scheme benefits everyone, the local student community, the wider city community, our ambulance crews, and the students themselves, who gain some real-life experience responding to incidents across the city.

“We are extremely grateful for the support from Newcastle University and its medical students, who really do help save lives.”

Anita Low, from the University’s community first responder scheme said: “It’s a fantastic opportunity for students like ourselves to help in the community and get hands-on experience at the same time! I’m thrilled the society has reached it’s fifth year and hope it continues on for many to come.”

Find out more about how to become a community first responder here: https://www.neas.nhs.uk/join-team-neas/volunteers/community-first-responders

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