MORE lives could be saved in the North Cotswolds if local residents’ sign up become First Responders.

Kevin Dickens, operations support manager for Great Western Ambulance Service, is appealing for volunteers in Stow, Bourton, Moreton-in-Marsh and the surrounding villages who will provide valuable medical assistance in the area under the scheme jointly run by St John Ambulance and the Great Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

Community First Responders, who live or work in the area, are called to give early patient care to people suffering a life-threatening medical emergency prior to ambulance arriving.

Mr Dickens said CFRs can save hundreds of lives every year.

"Gloucestershire is a challenging rural area," he said.

"On average, 450 life-threatening incidents per month in Gloucestershire are attended to by CFRs.

‘They are invaluable in trying to improve health care prior to an ambulance arriving. Chances of survival are far greater if a first aider is there."

Criticism of ambulance waiting times was fired at GWAS eearlier this year when a Cotswold health campaigner said it was quicker for a pizza to be delivered to her home than it was for an ambulance to arrive if she made a 999 call.

At a full council meeting in February, Fairford councillor Chris Roberts said the GWAS is late for more than half of its category A emergency call-outs.

From April 2009 to the end of January GWAS only attended 48.1 percent of category A call-outs in Gloucestershire within the required eight minutes. The national target is 75 percent.

Bourton parish and district councillor Sheila Jeffery represents the district on the county health, community and care scrutiny committee.

She said: "We have about four community first responders in Bourton, and for a village this size it would be good to have 10 or 12.

Those interested in becoming a CFR will receive full training free-of-charge in how to deal with situations including cardiac arrest, chest pain, fitting and diabetic emergencies.

‘We can not resolve everything but with a good team of CFRs we can cut down the problems, including the issue of response times," added Mr Dickens.

"I want the Cotswolds to have the best service it possibly can."

Those interested should call 01452 858234.