More Cornish patients are benefiting from a volunteer-led South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust initiative after it received new funds.

Torpoint’s Community Responder group raised more than £3,000 through South Western Ambulance Charity to purchase a new lifting chair for patients who have fallen at home and are unable to get up.

The scheme involves patients calling 999 and being attended to by trained volunteers, called Community First Responders (CFRs). 

In each incident, the CFR assesses the patient with support from a clinician in the Control Hub. They use the lifting chair to move patients from the floor to a sitting or standing position, and the clinician decides if an ambulance is required.

The initiative reduces patient wait times and can avoid them needing to go hospital. It also frees-up frontline crews to be available for life-threatening incidents.