Taking bookings now St John Ambulance Cymru West Glamorgan Cycle Response Unit operating in Swansea city centre and at operational events across West Glamorgan. Following similar schemes in Cardiff and North Wales, our Swansea based CRU will consist of a number of specialist cycles with trained enhanced first aiders, community first responders and paramedics. All personnel and administrators will be volunteers with St John Ambulance Cymru. The CRU will be based in Swansea City Centre and will be able to respond, in coordination with the Welsh Ambulance Service, to emergency 999 calls and medical incidents occurring in the many areas of the city centre which are difficult for traditional emergency vehicles to reach. The CRU will also be able to operate and provide specialist response capabilities at the many public events in the Swansea area for which St John Ambulance Cymru provide event first aid cover. Some examples of major events include the Wales National Air Show, Swansea Half Marathon, Swansea Bay 10k, Mumbles Raft Race and many more. Similar schemes in other cities have proved to be of huge benefit to the communities they serve, due to the speed at which highly trained volunteers and essential equipment have been able to reach incidents. In Cardiff, several cardiac arrest patients have survived because of the rapid response from the CRU and pressures on NHS services reduced. Our CRU scheme aims to provide an additional emergency service for Swansea city centre which will be environmentally friendly and able to rapidly reach patients in areas inaccessible to vehicles. Each of our specialist cycles will carry a range of emergency equipment and supplies including defibrillators (AEDs), oxygen and Entonox medical gases, trauma packs and medical drugs. All the equipment is carried is specially designed medical cycle panniers on cycles equipped with emergency sirens and blue lights. Our volunteers will be dressed in specialist safety uniforms which provide high visibility as well as all-weather protection. Our volunteers will receive specialist training for their role in the CRU to complement the already high standard of first aid training they receive from St John Ambulance Cymru. There will be a programme of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) training to ensure these high standards of training continue. The St John Ambulance Cymru West Glamorgan CRU project has already gained the support of the office of the High Sheriff of West Glamorgan and the St John Council for West Glamorgan and as our publicity campaign gets underway we hope to secure more support from the community and its leaders.
