Community First Responders in talks to secure new base in Limerick
A TEAM of volunteers who provide a life-saving service to the community in Limerick have held talks over having a home of their own.
Based at Ennis Road, the Community First Responders (CFR) is a community group working with National Ambulance Service to respond to specific 112 or 999 telephone calls north of the Shannon.
On call around-the-clock, they would aim to get to the scene of an incident before the emergency services and start treatment.
Up to now, they were relying on the goodwill of the Woodfield House Hotel to hold meetings, and their gear was transported around in members’ cars.
Now, talks have been held with the group about using a council-owned facility in the old Cleeve’s factory for its services.
Rosie Cleary, a nurse by profession, is the fundraising officer for the CFR group.
She says having a base in the city will allow the group to give training to more people, to increase the level of awareness of how to provide a potentially vital early intervention.
“What we hope to do by doing this is to increase survival rates of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. We want to really expand on our awareness programme. At present, we cannot do it as we don’t have our own premises, and we’ve had to drag our equipment here, there and everywhere.”
The group – founded in 2018 – only gets limited State funding.
Rosie believes there should be mandatory training for life-saving first aid in Irish schools, and has called for the Department of Education to support this.
The group is always on the look out for volunteers. Click here for details.