We urge owners of defibrillators to register their devices on The Circuit and help save a life.
Why you should register your defibrillator
There are more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests every year in the UK, but fewer than one in ten people survive. Immediate CPR and defibrillation can more than double the chances of survival - but public access defibrillators are used in less than one in 10 of cases.
To improve survival rates, Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK), British Heart Foundation (BHF), St John Ambulance, and Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) are urging guardians of defibrillators to register their devices on The Circuit: the national defibrillator network.
It is estimated that tens of thousands of defibrillators remain unknown to ambulance services, meaning emergency services cannot direct bystanders to them in the event of a cardiac arrest, an ultimately help save a life.
The Circuit’s aim is to map all public access defibrillators, so that when someone has a cardiac arrest, 999 call handlers can direct bystanders to the nearest registered defibrillator while they wait for the ambulance to arrive.
Currently there are over 46,000 defibrillators on the database, and the goal is to get to the 50,000 mark. This significant milestone would represent half of the estimated 100,000 defibrillators in the UK being registered on The Circuit. The BHF, RCUK, St John Ambulance and AACE are calling on anyone who looks after defibrillators in places such as offices, communities, shopping centres, leisure centres, and in public places, to register them on The Circuit.
The Circuit is already live in 13 of the 14 ambulance service areas across the UK. It is soon to become nationwide, and could help to save thousands of lives over the coming years. In order to achieve this, it is vital that as many defibrillators as possible are registered on the database for it to work effectively.
Dr James Cant, Chief Executive Officer at Resuscitation Council UK, said: “RCUK is committed to giving people, across the UK, the skills they need to save a life - having access to a defibrillator is essential in achieving this. “One in ten people in the UK survive a cardiac arrest out-of-hospital. The chance of survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest can be increased two-to-threefold by the immediate provision of bystander CPR and defibrillation, that is why it is essential all devices are registered on The Circuit. We urge those that have not registered to do so immediately so many more lives can be saved.”
Is your defibrillator connected? Take charge. Join The Circuit today.