Vale and Fosse First Responders

29th September 2022 ‘Vale and Fosseway Responders’ – Nikki Shore

Nikki explained that the Vale Responders started in 2005, through Gill & Henry at Harby, then becoming a registered charity in 2006. They joined forces with Newark Responder in 2019, as both parts were struggling, although working with EMAS, funding became an issue.

In essence Responders are volunteers who give of their time to attend to cardiac arrest patients in their own community.  Every minute delay reduces the patient’s chance of survival by 10%.  Currently they have 13 Responders of varied backgrounds, 50% retired and the remainder still working.  Nikki herself is a retired Police Sergeant, so the move to responder was built into her DNA and she really enjoys it, outlining one example where her and her assistant were giving a rendition of the Beatles “All my Loving” joining with their male patient in the care home who had been humming the song, until the ambulance arrived.

Their primary role is to deal with cardiac arrests (different to Heart attacks, normally caused by a blockage), but inevitably chest pains, falls, blackouts and many other traumas demand their support.  They are not First Aiders as such,

the sense of dealing with minor injuries but  can do so if required. They are trained by EMAS to deal with quite serious incidents and attend regular monthly training to keep their skills up to date.Initially they become a  level 2 responder and with more training progress to level 3 which allows them to deal with incidents involving patients of any age and use drugs such as entonox.

but are trained regularly.  When they first start to gain level 2 responder and more progressing to level 3.

They cover the area from Newark in the North, Long Clawson South, Bingham West and Bottesford East, but that’s just the theory, if EMAS needs their help somewhere else they jump to it.

Nikki had circulated a quick quiz that provide some details which she had not covered in detail, but funding turned out to be an issue, with costs of about £6000 per annum. With kit costs of around £1800 per responder, £300 for a replacement Defibrillator battery and they now have a liveried vehicle costing £4000 p.a. instead of always using their own vehicles.

Obviously Covid had a big impact on their service, in particular requiring the responders to have to work on their own, but they also got involved at the vaccination centres supporting other NHS staff.

This has been recognised with 4 responders receiving the Queen’s Jubilee medals and the Queen’s Award for Volunteer organisations.

They now visit schools to make children aware of their role and support village fetes. Their work in terms of hours (10976) and incidents (267) have increased by at least 50% over the last 12 months.

Clive gave a heartfelt Vote of thanks to Nikki to someone ‘who has a vital role to play in the local community, but no one wants to see’. Certainly one of our members who received their help really appreciates the service they provide. The members joined in to thank Nikki in the normal manner in appreciation of her informative and interesting presentation.                                 AR