On village greens, on sports hall walls and in local shops across the country are portable devices that could mean the difference between life and death when someone has a cardiac arrest.
These devices called defibrillators are placed at the heart of communities because they play a vital role in the chain of survival yet all too often we don’t know where the nearest one is.
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) developed The Circuit which aims to tackle this by mapping defibrillators across the UK, so that emergency services can direct bystanders to the nearest defibrillator in the event of a cardiac arrest.
It is thanks to community stalwarts across the country that we have so many defibrillators in the UK. They are the people who buy the defibrillator for community use or who fundraise to ensure their community has access to these lifesaving devices.
But the success of this community spirit depends on every defibrillator being on the system – and this is why we need once again to rally that community spirit and get all these defibrillators registered on The Circuit.
There are over 60,000 defibrillators registered on The Circuit. But while we have made great strides, the job is not yet done – there are an estimated 100,000 defibrillators across the UK, meaning far too many of these life-saving devices are still invisible to ambulance services.
A cardiac arrest can happen to anyone. Your mum or dad, your child, your brother or sister. And when the unthinkable happens every second counts.
Early CPR and defibrillation can more than double the chances of survival in the ultimate medical emergency. There are over 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests every year in the UK, and tragically less than one in ten survive.
We know as a nation we can and must improve cardiac arrest survival rates – but we can only do this by working together. At a national level, the BHF, Resuscitation Council UK, St John Ambulance and all 14 ambulance services across the UK came together to create and roll out this innovative new system.
We applaud the Daily Express campaign to reach 100,000 defibrillators on The Circuit and urge everyone who looks after a defibrillator to register it on The Circuit today – it could save a life.
– Dr Charmaine Griffiths is chief executive at the British Heart Foundation
