Accessible defibrillators can help to save lives

Of course, the answer is yes – and getting defibrillators installed in as many publicly accessible sites as possible is a great way to start.

Where heart attacks are concerned, speed is of the essence. If more businesses and organisations can get defibrillators fitted, then treatment can be administered quickly.

As Alan Parry, co-ordinator of the Gosport and Lee-on-the-Solent Community First Responders, says: ‘There is a mass of evidence to show that if someone is suffering a cardiac arrest, the earlier the defibrillation the greater the chance of survival’,

Last year The News launched the Heartbeat campaign, backed by health professionals, people whose lives had been saved by defibrillators and MPs.

Our aim was to increase the number of defibrillators in public areas across Portsmouth, Fareham, Gosport, Havant and Waterlooville.

Numbers did go up and now South Central Ambulance Service is working with Community First Responders in a bid to get 50 more defibrillators installed in Portsmouth and the surrounding areas.

We welcome their involvement and would love to see the day when everybody in our circulation area is within 10 minutes of a defibrillator.

So we urge all firms, sports clubs, business and retail park owners and other organisations to do their very best to get defibrillators installed.

Every year more than 30,000 people suffer a cardiac arrest in the UK and only one in 10 people survive. But a defibrillator can increase someone’s chances of survival by as much as 50 per cent.

That’s how important they are.