Our front foyer has a new addition – a new Automated External Defibrillator (AED).
The new unit has been put up by our Estates team in conjunction with our Resuscitation team as an additional measure to help in emergencies.
Our main reception is usually very busy with patients and visitors and occasionally there are incidents where someone collapses either in the main foyer or in our car park.
While there is emergency equipment in nearby areas, both in our surgical outpatients department and in our emergency department next door, to access these can take critical minutes.
Senior Resuscitation Officer Abii Leigh said; “To get to the equipment in either of the other areas you need to go through a least one set of double doors and it would take a few minutes to collect the equipment and bring it back again, when ideally you want to be delivering a life-saving shock within three minutes.
“The new AED will now be available immediately and, unlike other equipment that will need to be used by nursing or medical staff, this defibrillator can be operated by anyone – including admin staff, volunteers, visitors or other members of the public.
“The Automated External Defibrillator is now housed in a special alarmed cabinet close to our main entrance doors, which means it can be accessed quickly as well as alerting others to the fact it has been removed for use, calling additional trained staff to the emergency.”
Members of our Resuscitation and volunteer teams are pictured here with the new device.