University of Nottingham
Co-Responders

WHAT WE DO

We are a group of approximately 60 trained volunteers (all students of the University of Nottingham) who act as an additional resource to the East Midlands Ambulance Service. Using two cars and specialist equipment we provide emergency care to patients suffering from a variety of serious and life-threatening illness and injury. We can be tasked to 999 calls anywhere within the East Midlands but the vast majority of our responses are within a few miles of the Medical School at the QMC, Nottingham. We aim to give our volunteers a chance to have a real impact on the lives of people within our community.

We have volunteered more than 30,000 hours and have been allocated to over 11,000 incidents since our inception in 2014. At over 70% of these, our responders have arrived before the ambulance enabling them to provide the patient with the vital emergency care they needed, quicker than it would otherwise have come. The 999 calls we attend are extremely varied but have included:

• Cardiac arrests 

• Medical emergencies (seizures, diabetic emergencies, etc)

• Chest pain/Cardiac complaints

• Unconscious patients

• Breathing difficulties

• Traumatic injuries and falls

• Other incidents such as Strokes, Sepsis, Overdoses, Hangings and House Fires.