Our ongoing project is to try and get the local community thinking about what they can do in the event of an emergency, or what might aid the ambulance crews, and the CFR team, in finding your location.

There are a number of things that you can do to help the team find you quickly:

Stay with the patient until the ambulance crew arrives and call back if their condition or location changes.

Get someone to alert the ambulance crew by opening the doors and signalling where they are required, if possible turn on car hazard lights outside the location or driveway.

If you have more than one adult at the incident, ask them to stand on the roadside to indicate where the location is.

If dark, turn all your house lights on and pull back the curtains.

If your location is not obvious try to place a torch at the end of the drive & lock away all family pets.

Houses with names and numbers, make sure the signs are large and legible and that they are clearly visible from the road and you can see them in daylight or at night. (Keeping them from being obscured by bushes or trees as well.) This is the cause of many delays.

The same applies to large estates, where house numbers and roads do not follow in an obvious order.

Finally, if you have a mobile phone, download the What3Words App, or if you have access to the internet access their website.  They have divided the world into 3 metre squares and given each square a unique combination of three words.  Give us these three words and we can find you exactly.

Give us as much information you can for example,

It’s next to the church…
It’s the 3rd house on the right as you come in…
It’s the large flats with the numbers 100-260 on the front…
There is a post box outside…
My house has green door…

If you belong to the Message in a Bottle scheme (medical details in a container in your fridge), always keep it up to date. 

Help the team find you.. it could mean the difference between life and death!

These are real problems, which if resolved can help the emergency services get to the patient much quicker.