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  • Volunteers Week 2022

    Today marks the start of Volunteers Week 2022, and is an opportunity for us to recognise the huge contribution over 1,500 volunteers make to SCAS and to say a heartfelt “thank you”. Ever since I joined the SCAS Board in 2016, I have been very aware of the great contribution our volunteers make and never more so than in the last two years of the pandemic.

    I would like to take this time to introduce you to some of our volunteering opportunities.

    Many people are not aware that our Community First Responders (CFR) are actually volunteers. We are incredibly lucky to have so many of these volunteers across the SCAS area who provide essential care in the critical first stage of responding to patients with serious injuries or health challenges.

    Our volunteer car drivers work alongside the Patient Transport Service ensuring that members of the public arrive to their hospital appointments in a timely manner and with a smile, and not forgetting our welfare volunteers who are a friendly face providing tea and coffee to the paramedics who are queuing at the Emergency departments at peak times. These contributions make a real difference and are much valued by the SCAS Board, and the staff and patients who benefit from them.

    The SCAS Charity relies heavily on donations and our fundraising volunteers can be found placing and collecting charity tins at local venues, attending events or maybe carrying out a sponsored event themselves to ensure the Charity can continue to provide essential equipment for all our volunteers. This enables them to carry out their roles to a very high standard with the right support.

    Over the next 7 days, we will be sharing more about our volunteers and the good work they do to support SCAS, but for now from myself and all those who sit on the SCAS Board, I would like to thank the volunteers for all the time, energy and commitment each and every one of them show to  SCAS and SCAS Charity – Nigel Chapman, Non Exec Director

  • Pancake Day – flipping good teams!

    Our amazing team of Milton Keynes and Villages First Responders who not only provided voluntary first aid cover at the traditional Olney Pancake Races yesterday, but they also accepted a gauntlet from Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service crews to take part in a special emergency services heat.

    Maidenhead CFR’s James and Cheryl supported 999 TED at the annual pancake race in Windsor & Eton Central Station alongside many other mascots including Thames Valley Police.

  • Day Shift Defibrillator – Supporting SCAS BASICs

    Staffordshire and Company are a Surrey based coffee micro-roastery and coffee merchants. A specialist coffee roaster with a passion to not only bring high quality, taste-rich coffee but also to support charitable causes.

    Their latest offering is the Day Shift Defibrillator a Mexican dark roast of the Bellavista bean. The coffee is available as either beans or ground and boasts a bold, strong flavour with caramel/biscuity notes. It makes the perfect Espresso bean but also suits other longer drinks if you are looking for a bolder flavoured bean.

    Staffordshire and Company are generously supporting South Central Ambulance Charity and the SCAS BASICs team by donating to the Charity when you buy the new Day Shift Defibrillator. Not only that but if you use the discount code SCASCHARITY you can receive 10% off. The discount will not affect the kind donation the Charity will receive. Head over now to www.staffordshireandcompany.co.uk and get your order in!

    We are grateful to Staffordshire and Company for their support and hope you will enjoy the latest edition to their range.

    The Day Shift Defibrillator will be sure to you get you going in the morning!

  • New Forest Golf Club Makes Generous Donation to Lyndhurst CFRs 

    Our Lyndhurst Responders were delighted to be asked to attend the New Forest Golf Club to demonstrate the Mangar ELK lifting cushion to the senior gent’s members including the senior’s Captain Ian and his wife Liz.

    Ian chose the Lyndhurst CFR group as his charity for the duration of his year as captain, which due to COVID turned out to be two years, and agreed to donate funds towards the purchase of two Mangars.

    Initially Ian thought he was going to come up short but thanks to the generosity of his members, he very proudly presented us with a cheque for the superb amount of £3150.00!

    Graham Reeve one of our Lyndhurst Responders said, “We were of course amazed and extremely grateful for such a generous donation”.

    Thank you to all of the members at the New Forest Golf Club whom made such generous donations, but also a huge Thank you to our wonderful CFRs whom are always actively looking for fundraising opportunities like this to allow us to keep enhancing the patient care we provide.

  • South Central Ambulance Charity and South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust – Volunteer Community First Responders

    A year like no other for ambulance volunteers! 

    Community First Responders (CFRs) at South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) and South Central Ambulance Charity have, like so many others, risen to enormous challenges this year. CFRs have weathered every storm and still come out in strength to provide essential emergency care for patients across our community. Community First Responders volunteer for ambulance services across the UK giving a minimum of 20 hours a month but so many give so much more.

    Following initial training from clinicians, they are deployed to emergencies in their area, usually reaching the patient before the first ambulance arrives on scene. They immediately begin assessing the patient, taking basic observations and if necessary begin CPR if a patient is already in cardiac arrest. These vital minutes save lives. These ‘ordinary’ people take on an extraordinary role in their community and without them the demand on the ambulance service would be even greater.

    CFR volunteers have continued to respond to emergencies and to support patient care in their communities throughout the pandemic. Not only that they have also taken on new roles such as driving black cabs down from London to protect patient transport patients in transit; trained to dispatch CFRs from call centres; crewed the refreshment vehicles to provide staff with a hot drink while waiting at A&E with patients; helped distribute donated goods from hand cream to coffee across sites and as if that wasn’t enough they have fundraised to raise money for the South Central Ambulance Charity, taking on some tough challenges pushing their personal boundaries.

    Those that had to temporarily stand down due to age, their own health vulnerabilities or those of members of their own families did not give up! They found new ways to volunteer at SCAS, joining specific bubbles and providing essential support outside of direct patient care such as helping with the Flu and Covid vaccines. With the support of SCAS Community Engagement and Training Team and South Central Ambulance Charity, this incredible group of volunteers has enabled SCAS to reach even more patients, treat and leave even more patients in their own homes and supported the welfare of elderly and vulnerable patients by responding to non-injury falls and concern for welfare calls. With demand so stretched throughout the pandemic being able to attend an elderly person who is not injured but has fallen out of their bed or chair, getting them back up, checking their temperature, blood pressure, making and perhaps joining them for a cup of tea before heading off, has all meant these patients have not needed the valuable resource of an ambulance and more importantly has not resulted in a long lie on the floor for the patient which would likely have led to a hospital admission and further complications.

    Patients would often have a far longer wait without the dedication, passion and commitment of our CFR volunteers. South Central Ambulance Charity is incredibly proud of these volunteers who give so much to support their communities and to help others. Together as volunteers, an NHS Charity and an NHS Trust, they are one team providing an excellent emergency service to patients across four counties, serving a population of over four million people. They would be so much less without their volunteers.

  • SCAS Charity newsletter Sept 2021

    SCAS Charity newsletter Sept 2021

    Read the SCAS Charity newsletter September 2021. 

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  • South Central Ambulance Charity has been allocated £410k by NHS Charities Together to support a number of innovative projects across South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS)

    These include pioneering training programmes for Community First Responders (CFRs) and care home staff, as well as 17 new LUCAS 3 mechanical cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) devices.

    The funding forms part of a wider £7million investment by NHS Charities Together in ambulance services across the UK announced today.

    It means South Central Ambulance Charity can embark on a project that will see SCAS become the first ambulance trust in the UK to train an enhanced group of CFRs to perform diagnostic tests including electrocardiograms (ECGs) and urinalysis to support accurate and early diagnosis.

    CFRs are members of the public trained to support the ambulance service primarily by responding to medical emergencies and sometimes providing lifesaving first aid to patients before paramedics arrive.

    They also assist with ongoing patient care at the scene and attend more than 30,000 incidents every year.  They are funded solely by South Central Ambulance Charity, which provides equipment, training and is responsible for the vehicle fleet.

    There are currently more than 1,200 CFRs and Co-Responders – these are members of the fire service, police, coastguard and military who volunteer in their spare time – at SCAS covering Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire.

    They undertake an initial five-day training programme, six-monthly refresher programme and commit to at least 20 hours a month, usually covering a five-mile radius from their home or workplace.

    These additional skills will enable enhanced CFRs to provide more detailed information on patients’ conditions earlier and help SCAS clinicians decide on the most appropriate care pathway for them, whether in hospital or onward referral within the community.

    In addition to this project, the funding will enable SCAS to provide support, training and equipment for care home staff to enable them to better assess when an ambulance response may be required.

    LUCAS CPR devices deliver continuous, safe and effective chest compressions which maintain blood circulation at a regular level while freeing up paramedics to focus on other critical aspects of care while a patient is transferred in an ambulance.  The purchase of the new LUCAS 3 models will mean the Trust can upgrade from its current LUCAS 2 equipment.

    South Central Ambulance Charity will also use the cash injection to provide emergency lifting cushions to CFRs to enable early assistance to patients who have experienced non-injury falls and support the implementation of GoodSAM, an app which automatically triggers alerts to nearby cardiac arrests to whoever is signed on.

    This means they can attend and provide immediate life support while an ambulance is en route and the app identifies the location of the nearest defibrillator.  The funds will also support widespread training in out of hospital cardiac arrest.

    “We are delighted to have secured this grant for the charity which has been awarded thanks to the exceptional support from the public and NHS Charities Together.  It will enable us to increase the support we are able to give to our CFRs through lifesaving equipment and further training to develop the programme, as well as supporting our staff with important equipment such as LUCAS devices” said Vanessa Casey, Chief Executive of South Central Ambulance Charity.

    Nicola Dunbar, Head of Community Engagement and Training at SCAS said “These funds will go towards some really exciting developments across SCAS including our pioneering projects to train and enhanced group of CFRs to carry out additional diagnostic tests and to support, train and equip care home staff to respond to the health needs of their residents so they can better understand when an ambulance response would be required”

    Dr John Black, Medical Director at SCAS said “We are extremely pleased to benefit from this generous national funding as it will enable us to further develop a number of areas of work across SCAS to enhance patient care and ensure our CFRs are among the most advanced in the country.  It will also help with the addition of more advanced LUCAS 3 devices which can provide high quality chest compressions to patients in need of prolonged resuscitation while freeing up paramedics to carry out other essential patient care during a transfer to hospital”.

    Ellie Orton, Chief Executive of NHS Charities Together added “At this time of immense challenge for the NHS we are delighted that we can make a real difference and ultimately help save lives by funding amazing CFR volunteers and additional support for South Central Ambulance Service.”