New emergency vehicle funded

The grant scheme is administered in the county by Lincolnshire County Council, and aims to strengthen links between the armed forces and the wider community.

The charity is made up of volunteers from the Armed Forces, either serving, or ex forces personnel, who give up their time to man a rapid response ambulance on shifts lasting between six and eight hours.

The new vehicle is on standby at different locations throughout Lincolnshire, depending on where it might be most needed at any given time.

It is fully equipped so the volunteers can attend a range medical emergencies, including falls, chest pains, breathing problems and road traffic collisions.

On arrival at an incident it is the response crew’s job to assess the situation, triage patients and utilise their skills until the arrival of a front line ambulance crew.

Rick Varlow chairman of Lincolnshire Emergency Medical Response said: “Having a second vehicle has made a massive difference to the amount of accidents and emergencies we can attend, and this funding has been so important to us,” he said.

“Our volunteers are fully trained to attend to almost all medical emergencies, and our drivers are trained to drive on a blue light, meaning we can reach incidents safely and quickly.”

“On a six hour shift we can usually attend five or six jobs, and sometimes more,” Rick added.