About us

Penicuik Community First Responder

Our community first responders are volunteers who are trained by the Scottish Ambulance Service to attend certain types of emergency calls in the area where they live or work. Their aim is to reach a potential life-threatening emergency in the first vital minutes before the ambulance crew arrives. As we are locally based, we have an average response time of around 5 minutes. We provide an early intervention in situations such as cardiac arrest, heart attacks, breathing difficulties and collapse. A Community First Responder is trained to provide an initial assessment of a patient's condition and where appropriate, use their emergency skills and knowledge to initiate care and treatment. Since our formation in 2005, we have attended over 3000 calls helping to provide support to our local community

Penicuik Community First Responders can offer Basic Life Saving Courses to any interested groups (cubs, brownies, scouts, guides, pubs, restaurants, businesses, shops, sports clubs etc) to teach the local population emergency life support skills, including recognise a heart attack and a cardiac arrest, help an unconscious person, perform CPR, help someone choking and respond to serious bleeding. We will also demonstrate how to use an automated external defibrillator.

Fancy joining us?

If you would be interested in joining Penicuik Community First Responders, please contact our local Co-ordinator on 07889 248 570 or drop us a message on our Facebook page and our coordinator will get in touch with you.

We are keen to recruit more volunteers especially if you have availability Monday to Friday during the day or evening. You don't have to give a huge time commitment, even a couple of shifts a month would assist.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook.