Victims of cardiac arrest will benefit from a £1m fund which could add around 1,000 to the number of defibrillators in England.
Life-saving defibrillators deliver a high-energy electrical shock to the heart of a person in cardiac arrest to restore a normal heart rhythm.
The new fund will allow people to request defibrillators for the areas that are most needed and have the most visitors, such as: B. local shops, post offices and parks.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: “I have heard extraordinary stories of ordinary people being kept alive thanks to the rapid deployment of a defibrillator on the football pitch, in the gym or in their local communities.
“We need to make these life-saving devices more accessible.”
Life-saving defibrillators deliver a high-energy electrical shock to the heart of a person in cardiac arrest to restore a normal heart rhythm. The new fund will allow people to request defibrillators for areas of greatest need and traffic, such as: B. local shops, post offices and parks
Ambulances took an average of 48 minutes and eight seconds to respond to 372,326 Category 2 calls, such as: B. heart attack, stroke, burns and epilepsy (red bars). That’s nearly three times the 18-minute target, but about 13 minutes faster than a month earlier
DR Charmaine Griffiths, Chief Executive of the British Heart Foundation said: “For every minute without CPR or defibrillation, a person’s chance of surviving an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest decreases by 10 per cent, so we welcome this move to increase access to defibrillators to improve in communities across England.”
Defibrillators combined with CPR give patients in cardiac arrest the greatest possible chance of survival.
When a heart stops beating during cardiac arrest, oxygen does not get to the brain and other vital organs, and brain damage can begin within four to five minutes without help.
People may now be particularly reliant on community defibrillators as ambulances have missed their average target of seven minutes to respond to “category one” calls, including cardiac arrests, since April last year.
The Department of Health and Human Services will fund defibrillators through an independent partner organization and will ask applicants to match some or all of the funding they receive.
It comes after South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust branch medical director Professor Charles Deakin warned the public were playing a “deadly game of hide and seek” due to a lack of clues to find defibrillators.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been urged to follow the Irish Government’s lead in scrapping VAT on defibrillators to ensure an efficient network of devices across the UK.
Referring to the new fund for supplementary defibrillators, NHS National Medical Director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said: “The NHS is proud to work with partners on the ground to advocate for the importance of learning to prevent a heart attack. stop to recognize and respond. hospital outdoors — including working with St. John Ambulance to recruit a national network of community advocates to encourage more people to learn CPR and life-saving skills.”
Under the program, the government will fund the purchase, but not the maintenance, of defibrillators.
Public defibrillators are typically found in workplaces and public areas such as airports, shopping malls, bars, restaurants and train stations.
The British Heart Foundation says anyone providing a defibrillator in their community should ensure they are registered with The Circuit – a national defibrillator database for emergency services to quickly identify the nearest device.
Government-funded schools in England that do not already have defibrillators will get one from the Department for Education this year and next.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
