PART-TIME firefighters are joining ambulance crews on life-threatening call-outs in parts of North Yorkshire.

Fifteen retained firefighters from Pickering, Helmsley and Lythe are now part of the county’s first Emergency First Responder scheme.

The pilot scheme is a joint initiative between Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and follows the success of similar schemes elsewhere in the Yorkshire region.

Each first responder has been trained in basic life support, CPR and oxygen therapy and they are equipped with a kit which includes oxygen and an automated external defibrillator.

They will be dispatched at the same time as an ambulance – but the service is keen to point out they will not replace the usual emergency medical response.

However, their location within local communities could mean they are nearer to the scene in the first critical minutes of a medical emergency, delivering life-saving care until an ambulance clinician arrives.

The ambulance service’s head of community resilience, Paul Stevens, said: “We have a responsibility to ensure we explore all available options to improve clinical outcomes for people.

“We have a very clear ambition to improve the survival rate for those people who suffer from a cardiac arrest in the community and we want to have world-class levels of survival.”

He added: “North Yorkshire is already served by our award-winning Community First Responder teams who do a fantastic job as volunteers in their local areas.

“The addition of Emergency First Responders has further strengthened our response in these communities and the two models work side-by-side to save more lives.”

Emergency first responders will only be despatched when staffing levels at their fire station allow so the scheme should not have an adverse impact on fire cover.

The fire service’s head of risk management, Owen Hayward, said the scheme would deliver real benefits to people who require medical assistance in the rural areas.

“Since we started the pilot schemes emergency first responders have already attended over 80 incidents including one in Pickering where a person had suffered a cardiac arrest.

“The first responder played a key role in keeping the individual alive and hopefully this scheme will allow more lives to be saved.”

Mr Stevens added: “The demands placed upon emergency services increase every year and our approaches to providing the best responses for positive patient outcomes are continually evolving.

“By exploring innovative and alternative ways of working with all our partners, together we can save more lives.”