ALL firefighters in the county are set to be trained in trauma care amid fears South Central Ambulance Service is struggling to cope with increased demand.

In some areas of the county, firefighters have responded to more medical emergencies than actual fires since a ‘co-responding’ scheme was introduced as a trial last year.

Deputy chief fire officer Simon Furlong told The Oxford Mail this week that every firefighter in its 24 stations across Oxfordshire would now receive the training, which would then be rolled out to on-call (retained) firefighters.

The Fire Brigades Union welcomed the training but feared that with SCAS “struggling with demand” firefighters would eventually be “relied on” to save lives across the county.

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service’s five-year community risk plan, approved on Monday, revealed firefighters had responded to medical emergencies, such as road traffic collisions, 762 times in one year.

Mr Furlong said they were now responding to more medical emergencies than actual fires in parts of Oxfordshire, and needed to roll out the training to support South Central Ambulance Service.

Mr Furlong said: “In certain areas in the county we are more likely to arrive first and therefore more likely to save a life. For example, in West Oxfordshire last year our firefighters responded to 101 significant fires compared to 170 medical emergencies.

“It makes sense – in offices for example you have people trained in first aid. I know this [trauma care] is a level above that, but it’s something that will also improve the safety of our firefighters.”

He added: “At the moment around two to three crew members in each station are trained, we will train up all our full-time firefighters and then roll it out to our on-call firefighters. We will then be ready to respond and support the ambulance whenever they call upon us.”

But Mark Ames, chairman of the Oxfordshire Fire Brigades Union branch, said the move could lead to the fire service being “relied on” to save lives in medical emergencies traditionally the responsibility of the ambulance service.

He said: “The job of a firefighter is definitely changing but something needs to be done to make sure the ambulance service doesn’t rely on us, the fire service.

“We welcome the training - it gives us additional skills - but the ambulance service is struggling with demand and the Government needs to give them more funding.

He added: “If we are attending an incident on behalf of the ambulance service, those men won’t be able to get to a major fire should a call come in.”

A Care Quality Commission report, released in September rated SCAS ‘good’ but raised concerns over staff shortages and response targets for 999 calls.

SCAS head of operations Richard McDonald played down the shortages and said a “small number of international paramedics” had recently joined the service reducing the vacancy rate from 9 per cent to 0.25 per cent.

He added Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue were only used for its most serious cases but that firefighters had been first on the scene around two-thirds of the time when called upon.

He said: “The co-responding initiative has been welcomed by both services and ensures we can get lifesaving medical equipment, such as a defibrillator, to a patient as quickly as possible should they be in a life-threatening condition.

“It is a great way to utilise spare capacity and the skills of firefighters given that nationally the number of fires crews have attended over the past ten years has almost halved, whereas the demand on SCAS has increased in the past six years by more than 65 per cent.”