Volunteers will answer about 999 calls to take patients to hospital in an attempt to deal with growing delays, the London Ambulance Service (LAS) said.
A pilot scheme using ambulances is set to begin in London in May.
The LAS said the trained volunteers will be sent on lower-level 999 calls, where the patient needs help to get to the hospital.
The plan will focus on people who fall into “category three”, where they need an answer within two hours and need additional help due to mobility problems.
Category three calls may include late-stage labor, abdominal pain, and diabetes, in which patients can be treated at home.
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The trained volunteers are already answering 999 calls in their own car along with ambulances, the LAS said, but such volunteers will now be stationed in ambulances.
Volunteers are equipped, trained to use defibrillators and to support LAS in life-threatening emergency calls in their area, the service said.
Twenty-two volunteers have been trained and evaluated and the cars will run from New Maldon, Deptford, Greenford, Kenton, Edmonton and Ilford, according to widespread details from the LAS board in March.
Image: Reaction times have reached record levels. Photo: London ambulance
A LAS spokesman said: “This project is based on our well-established network of emergency responders to ensure that our ambulances can reach the patients who need us most.
“These fully trained volunteers, who already respond to 999 calls in their communities, will help patients who are estimated not to need an ambulance but may need more support than they can provide.”
The pressure on the ambulances under which the services are located was revealed on Thursday with the announcement of the waiting time from last month.
The average response time or ambulances in England that deal with the most urgent incidents – defined as calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries – was nine minutes and 35 seconds.
This is up eight minutes and 51 seconds in February and is the longest average since the beginning of current records in August 2017.
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NHS data in England also show that ambulances took an average of one hour, one minute and three seconds last month to respond to emergency calls such as burns, epilepsy and strokes.
This is an increase of 42 minutes and seven seconds in February and is the longest recorded time for this category of calls.
The response time for emergency calls – such as late births, non-severe burns and diabetes – is an average of three hours, 28 minutes and 13 seconds, compared to two hours, 16 minutes and 13 seconds in February and is another record.
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