Town Council to purchase defibrillators

Wilmslow Town Council will fund the purchase of up to ten defibrillators to potentially help save lives.

An automated external defibrillator is a device which is used to deliver an electric shock to a person's heart when they have suffered a cardiac arrest. At the moment there are only three available in Wilmslow town centre, two at the High School and one at the Leisure Centre.

The defibrillators cost £650 (+ vat) each and about ten are believed to be required to cover the town centre. They are entirely automatic so users cannot cause any harm to anyone else by using them.

Janet Graham, Community Resuscitation Training Officer at the North West Ambulance Service attended the Town Council meeting on Monday, 21st October to explain why the funding was being requested.

She said "They weigh less than the average handbag and we want to put them in businesses, particularly businesses that are open long hours. We look at areas where there is a lot of footfall and premises that are open for extended length of time."

Janet added "We think they should be like fire extinguishers and everyone should have to have one. You can't be sued for using one, there isn't a court in the land that would touch you for any damage you produced by using one.

"You open it and it talks to you. It's a bit like a sat nav in the car. You have an idea where you're going but this machine talks to you and tells you - you can't go wrong."

She continued "We work alongside the British Heart Foundation so if you were to purchase the defibrillator we will come out and advise you where to put them and we'll also come out and deliver awareness courses to show people how to use one and we'll take the fear factor away."

Cllr Martin Watkins said "What we need to do is engage with businesses and try and persuade them to hold these defibrillators in a place where you don't have to get in a queue, like at a bank. So we are looking at getting businesses to agree to having these defibrillators stored and possibly for them to sponsor them to offset the cost."

Janet Graham also explained that they have a lot of support in Knutsford from their Community First Responders, who are volunteers that work under the umbrella of the ambulance service and answer emergency calls, often before the ambulance service can get there.

Janet told councillors "At the moment there are two First Responders in Wilmslow, very very recently taken on, if you wanted to work in the community to get some more volunteers please do that. I recruit them.

"Don't lead them down the wrong track in that it is just like filling in a piece of paper and you're in, it is quite an extensive process but it will be worth their while. They get trained up to use the kit, which contains the defibrillator, some first aid equipment, some oxygen and one or two other pieces and we send them out to respond on our behalf."

She continued "They do save lives, in the last 18 months we've had 11 successful resuscitations by defibrillators out in the community. The youngest of which was a 22-year-old male, the oldest of which was an 83-year-old female - cardiac arrest does not discriminate, it can affect anybody, you are not immune from it. How healthy you are, how unhealthy you are it does not matter."

Cllr Martin Watkins concluded "My proposal is we underwrite at this stage the provision of defibrillators. We need to do extra work by going to local businesses and working out whether they are prepared to sponsor these defibrillators and underwrite some of the costs.

"I am proposing 10 defibrillators at £650 + vat each."

Councillors voted unanimously to fund the purchase of 10 defibrillators at a cost of £6,500 (+ vat) but they will be talking to local businesses in the hope that some will support them and sponsor the purchase of these life-saving devices.

Community First Responders are volunteers who have been trained in the skills required to attend emergency calls received by NHS Ambulance service and provide basic life-saving skills until the ambulance arrives.

Anyone interested in becoming a Community First Responder should contact Janet Graham on [email protected]. For further information visit www.nwas-responders.info.

Image by Rama, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 France license.