When are CFRs on duty? Are they available 24/7?
CFRs are volunteers. They often have full time jobs, families and other commitments. They will therefore "book on" when they are free and able to do so (and can remain within their operational area for the duration of the period they’re booking on for). They are not on call 24/7 and will only book onto the Ambulance control room when they are fit, well, free and available to attend all calls, and will be remaining in the operational area for the duration of the shift. Depending on their availability they may book on for a few hours at a time or a whole day or evening. As the operational area currently has seven trained CFRs this means that the service cannot cover all hours of the day or night.
Where do the Dunkeld and Birnam CFRs cover?
The D&B operational area currently spans North as far as Kindallachan and Dalguise, through Birnam and Dunkeld, Inver and out towards Trochry, stretching east to include Butterstone and out as far as Caputh, and Clunie. The area is largely driven by the locations in which we have trained CFRs. We are not currently able to include Amulree or beyond Trochry as we have no volunteer CFRs located there. Ambulance control must be satisfied that the CFRs can reach an incident within a reasonable time frame - and earlier than the ambulance. As more CFRs come on board and are trained, the area of operation can be adapted.