St John Ambulance Cymru has secured a contract to provide a new Welfare and Falls Rapid Response service in the Pembrokeshire area, which will see staff responding to incidents to assess and assist people, reducing demand on Emergency Medical Services.

The Haverfordwest-based scheme will be run in partnership with Hywel Dda University Health Board and will initially run from 1 October 2024 until 31 March 2025.

The scheme will follow on from the Falls Response scheme which has been operated by St John Ambulance Cymru in partnership with Hywel Dda and Wales Ambulance Services University NHS Trust in the same area since January 2023.

The announcement came as St John Ambulance Cymru marked Falls Awareness Week from 16 to 20 September alongside fellow members of the National Falls Prevention Taskforce Wales - an alliance focused on falls prevention for older people.

St John Ambulance Cymru’s Head of Ambulance Operations, Helen Coulthard said: “This new contract is a testament to the great service our staff have provided to people in this area of West Wales as part of the current scheme. To date the scheme has attended to over 1,000 people and saved an ambulance from attending on more than 500 occasions.”