We are a group of trained volunteer Community First Responders and team support volunteers working with SECAmb (South East Coast Ambulance Service).
In a rural community such as ours (we cover Partridge Green, Cowfold, Shermanbury, Littleworth and surrounding areas), our trained responders can reach a patient in a matter of minutes and provide life-saving help until the paramedic and ambulance team arrives.
Community First Responders sign ‘on call’ in their free time, ad-hoc and ‘co-respond’ where appropriate by means of a text message notification which is sent out by the Emergency Operations Centre following a 999 call.
Responders are equipped with defibrillators, oxygen and first aid supplies and have been specifically trained by the ambulance service. Our speed of attendance can dramatically increase chances of survival in life-threatening emergencies such as heart attacks or breathing difficulties.
Whatever the situation, we aim to provide immediate vital care, support, reassurance and confidentiality to those in our local community who need urgent medical assistance.
The PART group is an independent Registered Charity (Charity Commission No 1131374). We rely entirely on the fundraising efforts of the team and on the generosity of your donations. It costs us in the region of £1500 to equip a responder, plus on-going running costs.
PART are also dedicated to life-saving in the community in other ways and have an active programme of providing and maintaining Public Access Defibrillators (PADs) in the locality. These too are entirely funded by the generosity of our community. PADs are available for anyone to use, you do not need special training. We are working towards siting as many of them as possible externally so that they can be accessed day or night.
We regularly provide free sessions in the use of the defibrillators for those that might like to gain confidence in what to do in an emergency. If you are interested in attending such a session, please get in touch. PADs are regularly monitored by PART. On contacting the emergency services you will be directed to your nearest PAD site.
We very much appreciate the support we have received to date and look forward to your continued support in the future.