The concept behind a CFR is to have community-based resources who can arrive at an incident quicker than an ambulance team that has been deployed from (for example) Perth or Pitlochry. CFRs are volunteers and CFRs are not full-blown paramedics, so they cannot attend every incident or help with every type of issue.
Also, CFRs do not decide for themselves if the indicident is a type they can assist with; that decision is made by Ambulance Control. So if a CFR is "on duty" and there's an incident but the CFR is not asked to attend, that is not the CFRs decision.
CFRs may atttend the following types of emergency:
- Cardiac arrest
- Heart attack
- Stroke
- Choking
- Diabetic emergencies
- Breathing difficulties
- Patients suffering a seizure
- Chest pains
- Unconscious patients
CFRs are not (currently) deployed to incidents involving children, and nor are they asked to attend incidents of trauma (such as car accidents).