Organisations invited to bid for free defibrillators

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) and the Department of Health (DH) are encouraging organisations in the South West to help make their communities safer as they launch a £1 million partnership to make public access defibrillators and CPR training more widely available across England.

The announcement comes as new figures from the BHF show few people in the South West are even aware they can use a public access defibrillator in an emergency (47%), and only three in ten (31%) say they would have the confidence to do so. The charity warns this lack of awareness and availability could be costing lives.

When someone suffers a cardiac arrest, their heart suddenly stops pumping blood around their body and they will die within minutes without treatment. For every minute without defibrillation, a person’s chance of survival decreases by around 10 percent.

However, a bystander giving immediate CPR and defibrillation can double a person’s chances of survival in some cases.

There are more than 30,000 out of hospital cardiac arrests in the UK every year. However, fewer than one in ten people survive (3). In places where CPR and defibrillator awareness is widely taught, survival rates of up to three times as high have been reported. The BHF say that if UK survival rates were boosted to match those seen in parts of Norway, where up to 25% of people survive, nearly 5,000 additional lives could be saved each year.

The BHF will now welcome applications for public access defibrillators from South West organisations including charities, social enterprises, community groups and commercial organisations. Each award will come with the BHF’s CPR and defibrillator awareness training programme, Call Push Rescue, allowing many more people in local communities to gain the skills and confidence to save a life. It will mean at least 580 more public access defibrillators are available in communities across the country by the end of the financial year and pave the way for thousands more people to learn CPR.

Today’s announcement follows the Chancellor of Exchequer, The Rt Hon George Osborne MP, committing £1 million to funding the rollout of public access defibrillators in the March budget. The BHF was awarded the grant to deliver the programme, with support from a network of organisations including the Arrhythmia Alliance, the Resuscitation Council and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives.

Jane Ellison, Public Health Minister, said:  “Our £1 million partnership with the British Heart Foundation will mean life-saving defibrillators will be given to communities across the country and more people trained in CPR. Making it easier to act in an emergency will ultimately save lives.”

Simon Gillespie, Chief Executive at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Every year, people needlessly lose their lives to cardiac arrests because not enough people have the skills and confidence to perform CPR and too few defibrillators are readily available in public places. Through this partnership, we’re urging organisations up and down the country to join us in creating a Nation of Lifesavers by making public access defibrillators readily available in their communities and by giving people the skills and confidence to save a life. This initiative could really mean the difference between life and death for the thousands of people that suffer a cardiac arrest in England every year.”

The programme is open to charities, social enterprises, community groups and commercial organisations working in partnership with the NHS Ambulance Service.

Organisations can check if they are eligible, and apply for the free community package including up to five public access defibrillators and a Call Push Rescue training kit by visiting:  bhf.org.uk/defibsdh