A PETITION to save Canvey’s only dedicated paramedic vehicle has crossed 700 signatures within a day.

An action group met for the first time on Friday to decide how to move forward with a campaign to save the island’s rapid response vehicle, which is due to be phased out in February.

The group agreed they needed to become more visible in Canvey and reach out to more people to spread the word of the car’s axing.

The phasing out is part of the ambulance service’s reorganisation of resources to get more ambulances on the streets.

However, if the rapid response vehicle goes, there will be no tethered emergency response vehicle to the island, with any additional ambulances also required to cover Benfleet and Southend.

The petition to save the rapid response vehicle was set up by Kieran Smith, who led Friday’s meeting, on Sunday.

Since then, more than 700 people have signed.

The petition reads: “Removing the RRV will leave local residents waiting longer for early paramedic intervention which may well have to travel from off the island, rather than the RRV which is based on Canvey.

“It is well known that as waiting times increase for paramedic treatment, so too do the risks of patient harm. Canvey has unique access problems; only two access roads, traffic gridlock and a dense urban population.

“For cardiac arrests the probability of survival outside of a hospital is less than ten per cent. With CPR it is 70 per cent if given in the first four minutes. The probability of survival decreases by ten per cent with every minutes passed. This is the key reason why we need to keep the RRV and a paramedic based on Canvey, otherwise, you are taking chances with people’s lives.”

Mr Smith told Friday’s meeting that a paper petition should also be started offline for the older Canvey residents who may not have access to the internet. He said: “I think it’s important to reach as many people through as many ways as possible, because people will care about this, but they may not realise its coming.”

The group will be on Canvey High Street this Saturday. Visit http://bit.ly/2PCfT2d.