VOLUNTEER ​EMERGENCY TELEPHONE SYSTEM

To support community resilience, the Community Heartbeat Trust now provides a service to help villages install and run a Volunteer Emergency Telephone System, or VETS.

VETS is designed for to assist where possible in an emergency situation where local help may be quicker to contact, out of activation radius and spread out community situations. A third of all 999 calls are from lone rescuers, so getting help to them quickly is important. VETS is a community-run system and enables up 10-15 “good neighbours” to assist pending the arrival of the emergency services. A local number is used as a single point of contact using "Hunting-Group" technology to ring all volunteers phone numbers simultaneously.

The system can also be used for any emergency where additional help is required from neighbours, whether Cardiac Arrest or not. The availability of VETS helps villages whether or not they are using a CHT provided defibrillator project, and gives a level of reassurance to the elderly, those living alone, and to the infirmed, that there is always help on hand.

"Local neighbourhood volunteers were geographically closer and arrived significantly sooner [to the Cardiac Arrest] than did the EMS service. The approximate time savings from call to arrival with the volunteers was 4–6 min.”

K.B. Kerna, et al; j.resuscitation. 2019.09.016

For further information is contact us.

Disclaimer

Please make sure you have read and understood this disclaimer - It will be assumed that you have read prior to CHT receiving any request. CHT are not responsible for your fund raising, nor your cPAD operations, but may assist in both. CHTs only aim is to support the installation of a cPAD scheme in the most cost effective way possible adhering to Best Practice, and help save lives in your community. This website, and any downloaded information, is for information only on how to go about obtaining and installing a cPAD, and other relevant information. All copyrights and trademarks are recognised. All support for the cPAD will be undertaken by the village committee responsible and via standard manufacturers warranties. Any training organisation will only be responsible for the initial awareness training and not for the functioning or maintenance of the AED. Please do not send any monies to CHT until you have registered your scheme with us, and have agreement from the local ambulance service for the establishment of a cPAD scheme. All schemes must be registered with the local ambulance service (CHT will also undertake this or you can do via this site, but this does not remove responsibility for you to notify the local ambulance service of your AED location). 999/112 (ambulance) must always be called prior to using a cPAD equipment. VAT may be applicable if your organisation is not an eligible body as defined by HMRC. All current or historical claims for VAT will be met by the local community. All schemes will be asked to sign an agreement taking responsibility for their own fund raising and donations to CHT, and then the operation and maintenance of the cPAD equipment. All CHT provided schemes will need to manage their maintenance through the WebNoS online system as a condition of CHT support. It is your responsibility to maintain the equipment in working order and to make sure the local ambulance service is aware of this. WebNoS makes this possible and also acts as an audit trail for management of the equipment. Sites provided by CHT and not using WebNoS may be disengaged from the ambulance service CAD systems. Any web site showing defibrillator locations is for information only, and should not be used in preference to dialling 999. CHT works in close cooperation with the UK ambulance services. Always dial 999 in an emergency

Registered Charity Number - 1132824
 

Development

Website by Atomic Ant Limited