Who does any volunteering?

[Mr Roper]

98elise said:

My Father does First Responder.

First Responders are sent to 999 ambulance calls to give first aid before the ambulance gets there. Obviously you have a small patch to cover as its meant to get someone on the scene in a couple of minutes when the ambulance might be 15 minutes away.

You simply sign in whenever you are avaiable, and wait for the pager/call to go off. Its interesting and rewarding work. He's probably saved a few lives.

My Dad does the same thing. 18 years in the fire service (retained) - Retired. He set up the First Responder unit our town...We live in rural Wales so Ambulance response times can and often take longer than what they would like due to the area covered. My Dad covers a 15 mile radius 24/7 and is only called to life risk situations. He has a great relationship with the Ambulance team and is regarded highly by them for his commitment.

He owns a few business, has loads of grandkids and still manages to spread his time. Much respect.

Very rewarding if you have the commitment...and the stomach.

Edited by Mr Roper on Wednesday 29th June 09:32

[sideways sid]

Matt UK said:

sideways sid said:

I've done a few Dream Rides to raise money for children's charities with the Sporting Bears.

I recommend it for PHers.

www.sportingbears.co.uk

I'm interested in this - do you need to change / notify your insurance? Are the donations classed as 'reward'? I hope not.

There is no reward to the owner of the vehicle, so no need to notify insurers or amend insurance.

A member of the public makes a donation to a charity. Subject to availability etc, the member of the public gets a ride in a car, as a passenger. The car is driven by the owner on public roads in accordance with all laws. The local traffic police are generally notified in advance that a bunch of cars may be driven with some enthusiasm, for good causes...

[mph1977]

casbar said:

carreauchompeur said:

That's interesting... Do they ever use 'ambulance' statutory exemptions?

We only have Blues on our marked bikes. Different groups around the country have different rules, but at the moment we are not allowed to exceed the speed limit, just aid progress. Some groups dictate lights off at red lights. There has been discussions around the whole blue light thing with all agencies, a consultation is in progress to allow blood bikes and some other agencies speed limit exemptions. But that would mean more expense on specialist training, which is an additional cost and on insurance. So not sure where that will go if passed.

A lot of groups now come under the National Association of Blood Bikes (NABB), so the rules are being aligned between member groups. That is where the advanced qual for car drivers and 3 yearly check ride for all members come from. IAM don't currently have to re-take the test, but will have to be checked by an approved person. ROSPA holders have a 3 yearly re-test.

blues for Blood and organ are a seperate legal category , without exemptions

this is a different category to ambulances and vehicles used for ambulance purposes ( as re-defined by the courts recently thanks to Hatzolah in Manchester and GMP being knobs to each other)

Edited by mph1977 on Tuesday 5th July 10:15

[Dalto123]

sideways sid said:

Matt UK said:

sideways sid said:

I've done a few Dream Rides to raise money for children's charities with the Sporting Bears.

I recommend it for PHers.

www.sportingbears.co.uk

I'm interested in this - do you need to change / notify your insurance? Are the donations classed as 'reward'? I hope not.

There is no reward to the owner of the vehicle, so no need to notify insurers or amend insurance.

A member of the public makes a donation to a charity. Subject to availability etc, the member of the public gets a ride in a car, as a passenger. The car is driven by the owner on public roads in accordance with all laws. The local traffic police are generally notified in advance that a bunch of cars may be driven with some enthusiasm, for good causes...

Another member here, although I feel that I should add that the club will want evidence that your insurer is aware/happy for you to do dream rides.

Fantastic club though, has opened a new door for me in terms of a social circle, and we raise a lot of money for some very worthy causes. This weekend alone we raised £9200 in two days at The Supercar Event

[BertieWooster]

I was an Emergency First Responder in the south west for a number of years before I moved to Germany. It was very different from the Community First Responder schemes as we worked in fully marked emergency vehicles and responded to calls across the county. We were trained to FPOS enhanced level and were tasked to pretty much everything (e.g. RTCs, house fires, cardiac arrests, overdoses).

Volunteering on a Friday or Saturday night was a real eye-opener in respect of how thin the ambulance staff were stretched. It wasn't uncommon for us to drive for 30-40 minutes to get to a call and then have to wait for an hour or so for an ambulance to arrive.