Scas launches app to show location of defibrillators

South Central Ambulance Service is launching the mobile app which tells people where the nearest automatic external defibrillator is, should they come across someone suffering cardiac arrest.

It will also guide them through how to carry out effective CPR or chest compressions.

The Save a Life app has been developed for Scas by O2 and uses GPS to show a user where their closest AED is.

Although it was built by Scas, every ambulance trust in the country can upload the location of all their AEDs to it. If they chose to, for the first time, it would provide a national register of every AED in the UK.

Professor Charles Deakin, consultant in cardiac anaesthesia and intensive care and assistant medical director for Scas, said: ‘Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of premature death, but with immediate treatment many lives can be saved.

‘Seconds do count so by using the Save a Life App, someone can save many seconds, if not minutes, in using a defibrillator on a patient even before an ambulance arrives.’

To download the app, visit scas.nhs.uk/savealife.