When ambulance cover for a community in Argyll and Bute was cut back, a group of residents decided to take matters into their own hands by being first in health emergencies.
Ten years later, the Garelochhead and Rosneath Peninsula First Responders have answered more than 1000 emergency calls and also installed 16 public defibrillators across the area.
They are literally lifesavers – the group’s coordinator John Webb alone has dealt with 45 cardiac arrests – but also provide priceless reassurance for families at times of great crisis.
The volunteers include Sheena Edwards, who said the group was formed in July 2013 because of the area’s remoteness, with news that an ambulance would no longer be based at Garelochhead being a triggering point.
“Our nearest ambulance now is Arrochar or Helensburgh,” she said.
Both those places are close to the Rosneath Peninsula as the crow flies, but up to 18 miles away by road.
“It could just take 25 minutes, but if they’re already en route to the hospital in Paisley with a patient and then there’s a 999 call before they cross the Erskine bridge to get back here, they get diverted to the 999 call,” said Sheena.
“Sometimes our nearest ambulance is in Inveraray (39 miles), but it can be Balfron (also 39), Dunoon (56) or Greenock (48 miles).”
It frequently takes 90 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, but the wait can be up to five hours.
The small group of volunteers is on 24-hour alert – and has been called out every Christmas Day and New Year’s Day since it was formed, usually to people with chest pains, or having breathing difficulties.
They are even called to the Royal Navy’s nuclear bases at Faslane and Coulport, being escorted past armed guards at the gate by MoD Police.
Earlier this year John had to deal with two cardiac arrests in the space of 24 hours.
“Both callouts were for chest pains,” he said.
“They both actually died while I was there – I got the first back after one shock and the second after two shocks.”
A retired CalMac skipper, John says there is worry about the future – “I’m getting older!” – while Sheena says she will step back when she retired from her job as and nurse practitioner.
“We’ve had a bit of turnover,” she said. “Some people have been great for a couple of years but they they’ve moved away or life events have changed.”
Volunteers use their vehicles and only claim expenses if they have to travel out of the area, while funding has come from a council grant and local donations, as well as the Co-op’s Supporting Communities scheme, where 2% from your shop goes to a local charity of your choice.
There have also been stalls at car boot sales, as well as concerts in Cove Burgh Hall by folk singers Eleanor McEvoy and Nick Harper, as well as former Inspiral Carpets frontman Tom Hingley.
And the costs are considerable – the defibrillators and cabinets have cost £25,600, while batteries (which last for five years) are £250 and two sets of the single-use pads are £50.
The defibs have been so successful that they inspired a project in Edinburgh.
Lynn Cleal was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in January for leading a project to install hundreds of defibrillators in the capital, including on every tram.
She was inspired after moving to Cove on the Rosneath Peninsula and seeing public defibrillators on public buildings.
As a separate initiative, the peninsula volunteers have also run more than 100 heart start courses, in venues including cafés, Cove Burgh Hall and individuals’ homes – Sheena has also run courses on Orkney, where has been working on the island of Eday.
There are limits and frustrations – the volunteers are not allowed to deal with road accidents or incidents involving children unless they have separate qualifications, while simply finding homes can be difficult.
“What would be very helpful to us, would be when people call if they have somebody that can stand at the end of the driveway for us,” said Sheena.
“Particularly in the winter – put all the lights on in the house and hazard lights on a car, it makes it so much easier to find them. House names are not always visible and the could be on house wall, on garden walls, on a bin, or a box halfway up the drive – or maybe the name of the house has changed. There are four different houses on the peninsula called Tigh Na Mara!”
Hazel Wilkes added: “I’ve phoned at two o’clock in the morning for directions on a single track road, when it was pouring down with rain and pitch black.”
The volunteers carry no drugs except for oxygen and naloxone (for drug overdoses), but the human support they provide can be vital.
“It’s the reassurance, the minute we arrive on the doorstep, particularly for family members,” said Sheena. “They are so reassured that they’ve passed the load on and it’s someone else’s problem, and if it’s local and they know whoever turns up it is really reassuring for them.
“And then we can do so some basic ‘obs’ and get them to pack their bags ready for hospital with their medication so the ambulance can arrive and they can just scoop and go, which makes a big difference. Also if there is a fatality, it’s being able to help deal with the family. We don’t just go away.”
There are over 100 community first responder groups across Scotland – with six on the isle of Skye alone.
The project is managed by the Scottish Ambulance Service, which says they are mainly in rural areas where it takes longer for ambulances to reach patients. Their role is to help stabilise the patient and provide initial care until ambulance crews arrive.
If you’re interested in forming one, contact the Scottish Ambulance Service – though John Webb is happy to provide informal advice; he can be contacted via the local group’s Facebook page.
This article is published as part of the Mind the Health Gap series – a project from Greater Govanhill and The Ferret, funded by the European Journalism Centre, through the Solutions Journalism Accelerator. This fund is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
