Local areas get £1m defibrillator boost

CARDIAC arrest victims are set to benefit from a £1million fund which could boost the number of defibrillators across England by around 1,000.

The life- saving devices deliver a high-energy electric shock to restore a heart’s normal rhythm.

The fund will let people apply for defibrillators for areas most in need and with the highest footfall, such as shops, post offices and parks.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: ‘ I’ve heard extraordinary stories of ordinary people being kept alive thanks to the swift use of a defibrillator on the football pitch, at the gym or in their local community. We must make sure these life- saving devices are more accessible.’

Dr Charmaine Griffiths, chief executive at the British Heart Foundation, welcomed the move: ‘For every minute without CPR or defibrillation, a person’s chances of survival from an out- of-hospital cardiac arrest decreases by 10 per cent.’

People may now be particularly reliant on community defibrillators, as ambulances have not met their seven-minute average target to respond to emergency ‘category one’ callouts including cardiac arrests since April last year.

The Department of Health and Social Care will provide funding for the machines through an independent partner organisation, with applicants asked to partially or fully match the funding they receive.

It comes after Professor Charles Deakin, divisional medical director at South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, warned that the public were playing a ‘deadly game of hide and seek’ due to a lack of signs to help them find local defibrillators.