Ambulances to get new ‘cutting edge‘ defibs

Critically ill patients in Renfrewshire will benefit after a project to upgrade defibrillators used in all ambulances was completed.

The new devices, which have been installed in 528 Scottish Ambulance Service Accident and Emergency response vehicles and supplied by The Ortus Group, are more reliable and enable transfer of patient data from some of the most remote parts of Scotland to a receiving hospital.

The project – which was completed under budget and by the target completion date – involved the training of 3,029 staff, where 500 training sessions were held across 75 training locations.

Consultant paramedic Dave Bywater said: “I want to thank everyone who has been involved in fitting our ambulances with these new defibrillators, putting Scotland at the cutting edge of this new technology.

“We are delighted patients are going to benefit from it.

“In addition to defibrillation for out of hospital cardiac arrest patients, they also automatically record a patient’s vital signs, freeing the ambulance crew from recording this data manually and enabling them to give more focus to patients.”

The new Corpuls3 devices will automatically pass clinical information and data into the Electronic Patient Record, which can then be picked up and monitored by hospital clinicians ahead of the patient arriving – paramedics and technicians will also be able to easily record which drugs they have administered.

I want to thank everyone who has been involved in fitting our ambulances with these new defibrillators