Last month, over the festive period from Christmas Eve until New Year’s Day, we made sure that we had a team member available for over 167 hours, and in that period, we were called out 13 times.

In addition to this we assisted the ambulance service by providing a vehicle and crew on the evening of “Mad Friday”- the last Friday before Christmas - which is recognised as being one of the busiest nights of the year for the ambulance service, especially in town and city centres.

We were sent to Southampton and during the course of our nine and a half hour shift we were sent to 7 calls, including a road traffic incident, and a number of medical related calls. And of course, Bransgore was not left uncovered as Denis from Ringwood provided support cover locally.

We look back on 2019, proud in the knowledge that we provided 5000 hours cover being on call and attended 462 emergency calls in Bransgore and the surrounding areas – almost double the number from the previous year. Over 3200 of these hours were completed using our ever trusty Land Rover Freelander (the Best4x4xfar) and our Vauxhall Corsa response car with the remainder being covered by colleagues using their own private cars.

We still need committed and caring individuals to speak with us about becoming a local community first responder in Bransgore and this part of the New Forest. You must be over 18, of good character (a DBS check is done), have use of your own car and be willing to provide a very minimum of 20 hours every month being available on-call if required. All training and uniform is provided We would love to have an informal chat with those interested to explain more. If interested, please do give us a call on 0844 500 9699. Please note you must live in Hampshire as Dorset is covered by a different ambulance service.

So, as we enter a new decade, our team wish you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year.