I found this web site completely by mistake, but am glad I did so. It’s fascinating to get your prospective on life as a ambulance crew on an almost live basis. I would like to congratulate you on a superb blog and can’t wait to read your book. It on order from Amazon as I type. Also, I have read your comments concerning single responders and splitting up crews with great interest. I am a Community Responder (CR), and your remarks about how you find the very concept of CR’s wrong has not been taken to heart and I know and respect the fact that you have far greater experience than me with such matters and are far more qualified to pass comment than I am. However, recently it seems, especially in the area which I live and am active as a CR, there seems to be an ever increasing amount of instances where Ambulances are simply not available and are all busy on jobs. I attended a RED call the other day where it took 20 mins for a single responder to get on scene and a further 15 mins for a double crew to arrive. I don’t think that the fact I arrived on scene within 3 minutes made any difference in this particular case, however, in the event of a resuscitation being necessary I am certain that the patient would have not have stood a chance if I was not available. This is not criticism of the single responder, crew or the Ambulance Trust involved. The simple matter of the fact is that no matter how many ambulances, double crew or otherwise, there are, if they are all attending to emergencies then what else can be done? I know that your remarks are not meant as a dig at CR’s, however; I believe there is a necessity for them in our communities, especially now that recourses are so stretched for whatever reason. Providing appropriate training and regular assessment is given to CR’s to ensure their skills are being applied safely and that they are used properly by dispatchers, then I can’t see what is so “deeply wrong” in their application. Although our particular CR team has not yet successfully resuscitated a patient, (although I believe it is only a matter of time before we do) there are plenty of instances where CR’s in the UK have. Furthermore, when ambulances crews are stretched to and sometimes beyond the limits, CR’s at least give reassurance to very worried, scared and genuinely needy patients waiting for, in some cases, a long time for an ambulance.