Argyll defibrillators ‘need guardian angels’
Defibrillators in Argyll may not be usable in medical emergencies because they have not been registered with the Scottish Ambulance Service.
In April, an ‘unavailable’ defibrillator caused concern when someone collapsed at Oban railway station. An effort was made to access the defibrillator at the clock in Station Square by dialling 999 but the operator was unable to grant access to its code.
A spokesperson for Scottish Ambulance Service told The Oban Times the public access defibrillator had shown up as unavailable and the circumstances would be fully investigated with the local community.
The Station Square defibrillator is currently checked by the Oban fire crews, but a permanent custodian is needed.
When The Oban Times asked the Scottish Ambulance Service for the outcome of the investigation, a spokesperson said: ‘All defibrillators are managed by local custodians. They register each working defibrillator and its location with us and are responsible for checking and maintaining it.
‘Defibrillators need to be routinely checked by the local custodian to remain active on our system. This prevents a situation arising where during an emergency our dispatchers point an emergency caller to a defibrillator which is no longer working. This means that in an emergency we can alert the caller to the nearest available.
‘This particular defibrillator [Station Square] was deselected in February 2018. We contacted the custodian several times so that it could be reactivated on our system, but unfortunately they did not come back to us.’
Training still needs to be organised for Ardchattan Community Council’s defibrillator at Benderloch, and it also has one at Bonawe, with a third planned for North Connel Village Hall. The community council has also appealed for funding from Scottish Sea Farms for a fourth defibrillator which will hopefully go to Barcaldine. Access codes are displayed on Ardchattan’s defibrillators.
Defibrillators are also available at Kilninver School, Kilmelford Village Hall and at Kames Fish Farm. Seil Island Village Hall has one, there is one on Easdale and another site on Seil is being looked at for a third one. Ballet West at Taynuilt now has one for community use and there are four others in the village.
So far a list of defibrillators in Oban and Ganavan being drawn up by Rotarian Iain MacIntyre has identified seven, including one at Glencruitten Golf Club. He hopes to create a handy directory of locations to go on display in local shop windows and keep it updated.
However, when The Oban Times ran a check with the Scottish Ambulance Service to see how many defibrillators it was aware of in our area, the numbers for some locations were at odds. According to the service, there are no registered defibrillators in Benderloch or Bonawe, none in Seil and only one in Kimelford.
Every defibrillator should have a custodian who carries out monthly checks, answering six questions on an ambulance service website. Although it is not a legal requirement, if a defibrillator is not registered with the Scottish Ambulance Service it will not show up on its system and therefore the service will be unaware of its location or existence and no code will be available.
The SAS says it is currently managing improvements to its defibrillator registration web pages to improve and simplify users’ experience.