The Scottish Ambulance Service is appealing to communities across Edinburgh and the Lothians to register potentially life-saving public access defibrillators on its dedicated website.
Launching its Registration to Resuscitation campaign yesterday, the Service’s national community resilience manager Murray McEwan said, “Public access defibrillators can be found all over Scotland, including communities across Edinburgh and the Lothians, and are vital pieces of equipment in the crucial early minutes following a cardiac arrest before an ambulance arrives.
“When someone experiences a cardiac arrest they are unconscious and not breathing, or not breathing normally, and their life is in immediate danger, which is why these defibrillators are so important.
“Currently, anyone can acquire a defibrillator and they are often based in community centres, sports facilities and other public places. While there is no legal obligation to register defibrillators, the Scottish Ambulance Service now has a dedicated registration website and we are appealing to local communities to ensure we know where these are, so when someone calls 999 we will know where the nearest defibrillator is if it is required.
“Our call handlers may then be able to direct members of the public to a defibrillator if two or more people are present when somebody experiences a cardiac arrest and talk them through action to take.
“This is a campaign which will help save more lives and everyone can really get behind. We need the custodians who look after these defibrillators to register them on our website. Everyone else can help by asking whenever they see a defibrillator if it has been registered with the Scottish Ambulance Service.
“We are also working with the manufacturers as well as our partners, community leaders and community first responder groups to register as many of these defibrillators as possible.”
The Registration to Resuscitation Campaign is supported by the British Heart Foundation Scotland. The charity’s Director, James Cant, said: “Suffering a cardiac arrest, outside of hospital, is our most common, life-threatening medical emergency but only around one in 20 people survive in Scotland. Fewer lives would be needlessly lost if more people felt confident using CPR skills and more defibrillators were available in public places.
“If one of my loved ones suffered a cardiac arrest I’d want to know where the nearest defibrillator was and that it was on its way. By registering these devices with the Scottish Ambulance Service we can all ensure we’re playing a part in potentially saving a life by using the chain of survival: calling 999, starting chest compressions and using a defibrillator.”
The Scottish Ambulance Service public access defibrillator registration website address is: pad.scottishambulance.com
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