PCSO / Ambulance First Responder

[tonkertoy]

I am a PCSO and also an Ambulance First Responder while at work, I carry an Airwave Ambulance Pager and I am called to Emergency Ambulance calls within 3 to 4 miles of wherever I may be on my Patch, I really enjoy doing this and believe it should be looked at to see if this could be developed further and maybe rolled out further.
I carry a full first aid kit with Defibrillator and Oxygen.
Do any other PCSOs do this ?

[lilly5]

Not a psco yet...but i applied for First Responder here last year...but there local authority dealing with it are hopeless... They still haven't organised anything 18 months after their recruitment drive!

[powdermonkey]

tonkertoy

I've heard of this scheme before & I believe there might be a similar one regarding fire fighters. Do you get paid extra for this dual role?

[tonkertoy]

No I don't get paid any extra, I do it unofficially alongside my day to day PCSO duties, this is done with permission of my Inspector, there is a Tri-Service PCSO in the same Police Force, where he is PCSO-FIRE-AMBULANCE, however because that is officially being trialled he gets an extra £10,000 per annum than me !
I don't fancy the Fire side of things, but I can see that PCSO/AMBULANCE could work, because when responding you are first on scene and triage, treat the patient before a Paramedic/Ambulance arrives, usually back PCSOing around 30 mins later.
But if you respond to a Fire shout you could be gone for many hours !!!
I believe if this was looked at and run properly there would an ideal funding opportunity for the Police and Ambulance service to work together ??

[powdermonkey]

I have to admit I'd only consider it if there was more money offered.

[baronsmirnoff]

This was a motion at this years PCS conference should police staff get involved, I think it was defeated as those who would be most likely to respond and trained in ELS were at the end of a PR so would not need a pager, I do carry my own defibrillator in my car at all times but not on pager system