Harrogate district businesses and other organisations are being encouraged to provide details of defibrillator units on their premises.
The Defibs-Ripon Group, working closely with Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) has been at the forefront of installing and raising awareness about the location of defibrillators in the city, but is keen to make the Harrogate district aware of a wider initiative.
Group member Alec Lutton told the Stray Ferret:
“The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has created an online log in site called The Circuit, which provides locations throughout Britain of defibrillators that can be accessed 24/7 by emergency services.
Now, the BHF is looking to expand this, by registering the whereabouts of every defibrillator by including location details for all of the life-saving devices.
Mr Lutton added:
“This will be achieved by including the business names and postcodes for those ‘restricted access’ units on the premises of shops, leisure and hospitality, other businesses and organisations, where the devices are only available for use during working or opening hours.”
“Our contacts at YAS have asked us to encourage all those with such units to support this important initiative.
“There are currently 23 defibrillators in Ripon and the surrounding area that can be accessed 24 hours a day and, as a group, we would also like to add onto our locations list, the names and postcodes of Ripon-based businesses and organisations, where there is restricted access.”
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Helping a heart attack victim
A heart attack or cardiac arrest could happen to anyone of any age at any time, day or night and the following advice is offered by defibrillator providers, if an incident arises:
- Start cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) straight away, phone 999 and once you give the operator your location, they will tell you where the nearest defibrillator unit is.
- Do not leave the person on their own – send someone else for the defibrillator.
- The person sent for the unit, will be asked by the operator for the code on the front of the cabinet, and then given the code to open it and obtain the defibrillator.
- Each has a built-in voice instruction guide, to help you use it.