More lifesaving equipment for West Midlands

Hundreds of new defibrillators are being placed across the West Midlands to help patients who suffer cardiac arrest.
In addition, a number of schemes are coming to fruition which will result in getting help more quickly to patients with a life-threatening condition.
West Midlands Fire Service has teamed up with the British Heart Foundation to arrange for Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) to be added to the equipment available to fire crews. A total of 82 AEDs have been funded in partnership with the BHF. They will be kept on fire engines across the West Midlands Fire Service area and at key locations across the organisation.

In Birmingham and the Black Country Locality, defibrillators are to be placed in all GP surgeries and dental practices in Solihull (meaning an additional 67 machines). St. John Ambulance is also setting up new Community First Responder groups in Chelmsley Wood, Kingstanding and Erdington.

All GP surgeries in Shropshire will now have a defibrillator (an additional 43 for the county). There are also three new Community First Responder groups in the county; in Ellesmere, Ludlow and Wem.
In Staffordshire, work has begun to look at placing defibrillators in all nursing homes in the county.

West Midlands Ambulance Service is currently working with the British Heart Foundation to raise funds for 50 defibrillators to be put in key areas within the Birmingham area.
In Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire Locality there are 20 new Medical First Responders.

Nathan Hudson, Regional Head of Community Response, said, "Approximately 75,000 people die from a cardiac arrest each year in the pre-hospital care setting in the UK. The quicker we can defibrillate somebody in cardiac arrest the greater the chances of survival. By increasing the amount of defibrillators in the public domain and by increasing appropriately trained personnel in the use of a defibrillator and basic life support, the percentages of survival can only increase."