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Celebrating this year’s Volunteers Week, North East Ambulance Service says that in the last year alone over 400 local volunteers have dedicated over 200,000 hours of time to support its work in the community.
Ambulance volunteers benefit the service through four unique roles: community first responders, ambulance care service drivers, porters, and community ambassadors.
With more than 100 community first responders based across the North East, these volunteers are trained to deal with emergencies prior to the arrival of an ambulance;. In the last year, they attended 1,850 incidents and have collectively volunteered over 41,000 hours for the service as they respond to serious emergencies such as cardiac arrests.
Driving patients to and from hospital appointments is a vital service provided by volunteers and in the North East, 119 ambulance car service drivers have travelled a staggering 28 million miles in the past year meaning ambulances are freed up for emergencies.
There are 23 volunteer hospital porters who work across the region’s hospitals and are the first point of contact for non-life-threatening patients once they arrive at hospital. This allows ambulance crews to get back on the road and respond to more emergencies.
North East Ambulance Service has 145 community ambassadors, these are volunteers who work in local communities to boost life-saving skills such as CPR and how to use a defibrillator.
In addition to the four volunteer roles, NEAS celebrated the volunteer time spent by its governors who, it says: “play a vital role in reviewing the performance of our Board and the contribution our service makes to the wider health and care system, providing an essential link to the communities we serve.”
“Our volunteers continue to work hard, every day, and we are very proud of them. They have provided unmatched support for the service and displayed a great, dedicated, care for patients across the region; it is an honour to be able to recognise and thank them for this.
“The commitment our volunteers give to NEAS, as well as the patients & communities we serve, is exceptional, selfless and taken out of their own time. The service and I cannot thank them enough for the work that they do and our volunteer team too.”
Stephen Segasby, Chief Operating Officer, NEAS.
NEAS will soon celebrate its volunteers in an awards ceremony held in Newcastle.
Read more about ambulance volunteers – Yorkshire Ambulance Service celebrates crucial work of volunteers.
