Firefighters helping ambulance teams to be replaced

Fire staff have been acting as medical "co-responders" for 20 years

Firefighters who have been helping an ambulance service to respond to medical emergencies are set to be replaced by volunteers.

South West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (SWAST) has estimated it will save at least £300,000 annually by ending the "co-responders" scheme with Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service and other services in the region after about 20 years.

SWAST said that replacing Gloucestershire's 44 fire co-responders with 107 community volunteers would also improve response times.

But Paul Hodgkinson, a county councillor, said he was "not convinced" response times would improve as a result.

Mr Hodgkinson said there was a "huge disparity" in ambulance response times between urban and rural areas in Gloucestershire.

"I would have thought SWAST would really like to continue the fire co-responding because it all helps," he said.

"My ultimate issue is the safety of people in Gloucestershire; I think the arrangement has worked for the last 20 years.

"If something isn't broken, you don't need to fix it and therefore I would continue it and make sure people in Gloucestershire get better ambulance response times because that is a real issue."

Between June 2024 and June 2025, 386 calls were answered by Gloucestershire fire co-responders but there were 605 they could not answer.

Jane Whichello, a SWAST paramedic, said the proposals were "actually better for patients".

She said fire co-responders attend to category one patients – seriously unwell people who are fitting or in cardiac arrest, for example – who need very quick responses.

Ms Whichello said SWAST data showed that community first responders are able to respond more quickly than fire staff.

"We would love to carry on working with fire and we have made an offer to all our fire co-responders to train them as community first responders if they would like to carry on in a volunteering capacity with us," she said.