You will be pleased to learn that our new defribrillator is now located outside Belmont Community Centre and is operative from today. Thank you to Lesley, Katie and Eric for financial support, through your Neighbourhood Budgets, and Lesley for setting up a meeting with the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) to get us started with this project. Thanks to John from NEAS for all his guidance during the process. Additional thanks to Belmont Parish Council for their partnership and encouragement.
The defibrillator is held in a locked cabinet and can be accessed by a code which has been registered with NEAS. The following advice is provided by the NEAS:
“In the event of the AED being required, the code for the lock is obtained by dialling 999. This ensures that the Trust is always notified that there is an incident in the location, and therefore, an ambulance is deployed.
In the event of a cardiac arrest, the caller would be advised that there was an AED in the proximity, where it was located, and the code. The caller would be asked if someone could fetch the AED, but would be advised not to leave the patient to do so, as CPR is crucial to increase the chance of survival.”