Decision to replace paid co-responders with volunteers comes under scrutiny

Devon County Councils health scrutiny committee has expressed ‘concerns’ about plans to replace paid co-responders with trained volunteers across Devon and has asked the ambulance service to ‘pause’ and provide more information within four weeks.

The Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee this week heard from Dr John Martin, the Chief Executive of the South Western Ambulance Trust (SWAST).

The committee plays a vital function – it enables our elected members to represent the views of local people, and it the only committee with the statutory right to challenge the decisions taken by NHS bodies and the health service.

Dr Martin was invited to the committee by Chair Jess Bailey to answer questions about SWAST’s decision to phase out a 30-year agreement with Devon and Somerset Fire & Rescue Service (DSFRS) to provide co-responders and to expand the role of volunteer community co-responders. 

Currently, SWAST commissions on-call fire-fighters to ‘respond’ to medical emergencies – they are first on the scene and bridge the gap until paramedics arrive. 

Dr Martin said that ‘remodelling’ the service was principally about faster response times and added that a first responder with the fire service attends a callout in 14 minutes whereas SWAST’s volunteer community co-responders attend in eight minutes.

This was because fire service co-responders usually needed to attend the fire station before being deployed; community first responders travelled from home. 

He added that community first responders, who are recruited directly by SWAST, also have the ‘extra’ resource of calling the control room to seek guidance if needed. 

Dr Martin said that the agreement would not be phased out until they had ‘recruited, trained and had in place sufficient numbers of community responders.

However, councillors were concerned about a lack of data presented in the report to the committee and Dr Martin said he would be happy to provide more information in four weeks.