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Ambulance charity concerned over fall in donations

Edward Sault
BBC South Today
BBC Vanessa Casey, who has short dark hair, is wearing a dark fleece and is stood in front of ambulance vehicles in a car park.BBC
Vanessa Casey, the charity's chief executive, said it cannot afford to do what it has previously done

There is concern over the future funding of some of the south's community first responders after a fall in donations.

South Central Ambulance Charity has said it cannot afford to keep essential cars, pay for new uniforms or fund vital equipment.

There are 750 community first responders who cover Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Hampshire.

The volunteers attend more than 30,000 incidents a year, and are often on the scene before a South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) crew arrives.

South Central Ambulance Charity Responders standing next to cars which they use to get to emergencies in a compound. The cars are Dacias and white with orange and green branding.South Central Ambulance Charity
South Central Ambulance Charity faces losing some of its cars when their leases run out

"We do save lives and we take about 30 seconds of an ambulance response time," said Andy Long, who is a responder in Thame, Oxfordshire.

"Which when you are looking at a seven-minute response time, is a significant amount.

"I think people do not know what we do and perhaps we they see us wearing the NHS badge they think we are funded by the NHS - but we're not.

"Everything we do is all funded by donations."

All community first responders for SCAS have their training run and funded by the NHS.

But equipment such as their uniforms, defibrillators and responder cars are paid for through donations, which South Central Ambulance Charity said have plateaued.

The charity is also struggling with the increased cost of some medical supplies and faces losing 30 or 40 cars when their leases end in July, meaning volunteers would have to use their own cars.

Charity chief executive Vanessa Casey said she was worried about the impact the situation could have on responders and patient care.

"It costs around £500,000 a year so at the moment we're looking at freezing the recruitment of our CFRs because that is quite a cost to recruit and equip our volunteers," she said.

"It's very hard to highlight the challenges we have so that people can understand why we need to raise further funds."

Ellie Orton, chief executive at NHS Charities Together, said the challenges faced by South Central Ambulance Charity were "really worrying".

"As they battle mounting pressures on the health service, ambulance charities around the UK urgently need support to deliver work that many of us take for granted," she added.

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