Ambulance service in plea for help to map location of county defibrillators

 East Midlands Ambulance Service is urging people to help it save more lives. It wants to hear from organisations and community groups which have special equipment that can be used to treat heart patients.
The service is compiling a list of places where there are defibrillators – machines which send an electric shock to the heart when someone has gone into cardiac arrest.

Ambulance crews and community first responders are trained to use them to help save lives. But the machines can also be used by untrained members of the public in an emergency. While awaiting for an ambulance, members of the public can use the machines if they are given guidance over the phone by the ambulance service. There are also audio prompts given out by the defibrillators.

Pete Winson, East Midlands Ambulance Service's community defibrillator officer, said they were working with the British Heart Foundation and National Defibrillator Programme to map the location and availability of the machines. He said it was believed that some organisations may have held fund-raising events to pay for the machines but not let the ambulance service know. He said: "We need to know so that, if we receive a 999 call from the area, we can tell the caller there is a defibrillator nearby and treatment can begin.

"Knowing the location of all defibrillators in the county will help save more lives."

Currently, the ambulance service knows the location of 15 Derbyshire defibrillators.
Organisations and community groups who have access to one are asked to send full contact details, which includes a contact name, location and address with postcode of the defibrillator, to Pete Winson. He can be contacted via e-mail at peter.winson@emas.nhs.uk.