Samford First Responders – 6 Years old!

(This article was published in the Village Pump dated March 6, 2009.)

Six years ago on the 20^th February 2003, after several months of training and preparation by the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS), a group of 13 volunteers from Samford and the surrounding districts went operational as the Samford First Responders.

During the past six years Samford First Responders, together with an ambulance, have been despatched to over 2670 cases as a result of a Triple-Zero (000) call for ambulance assistance, and QAS have trained 19 first responders from the community (three of whom subsequently became QAS paramedics and one a QAS communications officer).

Our group membership has fluctuated between 5 and 13 members and still provided close to full 24x7x365 coverage for over 5 years. We have undergone many changes including becoming formally part of the QAS, supporting the new QAS Samford Ambulance Station, being issued with QAS uniforms (these look like paramedic uniforms but have different shoulder badges and clearly emblazoned with “QAS First Responder”), and becoming even more trained and experienced in emergency medical response.

Today, five of the nine current members of SFRG are original founder members. The Samford First Responders are an integral part of the emergency medical response entirely managed by the Queensland Ambulance Service.

As volunteers to the QAS, we freely donate our energy and time to provide a professional standard of service to help people in need and achieve so much for our local community.

Thank you to the QAS, particularly QAS Grovely and, since 2006, QAS Samford who have supported and nurtured us through our growth and development.

And a big thank you to the community, organisations and businesses who have supported us through donations and kind words. We volunteer for free – a thank you is worth a million dollars!

For further information, please contact the Officer-in-Charge at Samford Ambulance Station on 0434 189 363.

Steve Parry

Samford First Responders