Agenda item

To present a report on the provision of defibrillators in West Berkshire in response to the motion referred to Health and Wellbeing Board from Council.

The Chairman introduced the report on the Response to the Council Motion on Provision of Defibrillators (Agenda Item 13).

The Motion submitted to Council by Councillor Adrian Abbs had been discussed at a previous meeting and officers had undertaken to do additional research. Discussions had taken place with town and parish councils to understand where defibrillators were within the community and whether they were registered on the Save a Life app.

It was noted that Councillor Abbs had been invited to the meeting, but was unable to attend.

Zakyeya Atcha highlighted that the paper had been informed by a lot of information, particularly around how useful it was to have defibrillators in phone boxes or within local areas. She highlighted that there were other factors that needed to be considered, such as accessibility, maintenance and replacement at the end of their service life. She stressed that in sparsely populated areas, the most important thing was to provide basic life support and to call the paramedics. The report’s recommendations focused on what could be done to improve local knowledge and skills through basic life support training and increasing awareness of the Save a Life app.  She stressed that if funding were to be allocated, then consideration needed to be given as to how it would be used and the long-term sustainability of that funding.

Councillor Martha Vickers noted that this was an issue that Councillor Abbs was passionate about. She noted that the evidence was that the effectiveness of the defibrillators was not conclusive, but even if they were to only save a few lives, then they had value. She highlighted the importance of working in partnership with town and parish councils regarding the funding and management of the defibrillators. She agreed that the most important thing was provision of education on life support and hoped that funding could be found. She supported the report’s recommendations.

Sean Murphy observed that there were a number of water safety events and undertook to review whether these could be extended to include information on defibrillators.

Action: Sean Murphy to look at incorporating information on defibrillators into planned water safety events.

Garry Poulson supported the report’s recommendations. He indicated that having defibrillators in phone boxes would ensure maintenance of the phone boxes themselves.

The Chairman agreed that is was a good idea to place defibrillators in phone boxes if they were in the correct locations and not already being used for other purposes. However, they could be installed in other locations.

Andrew Sharp noted that first aid and lifesaving skills were often not prioritised, but in other countries training was part of the school curriculum, and there was a signiciant difference in outcomes as a result. He felt that the Board should come up with a programme to fund and / or encourage employers and others to run regular courses. He obseved that while safeguarding training was widespread, lifesaving training was not.

The Chairman agreed and highlighted that this was captured as part of the report’s recommendations.

The Chairman proposed to accept the report’s recommendations. The motion was seconded by the Councillor Lynne Doherty. The indicative vote showed that those in the room and those attending remotely were in favour of the motion. At the formal vote, the motion was carried.

RESOLVED that the Health and wellbeing Board:

(a)  Contacts West Berkshire Council’s elected Members to remind them that they are able to use their Members’ bids to part-fund community defibrillators.

(b)  Signposts town and parish councils to existing sources of funding for public access defibrillators.

(c)   Reminds town and parish councils of the need to undertake regular maintenance checks of AEDs and suggests that they nominate a ‘guardian’ for each unit.

(d)  Encourages South Central Ambulance Service to identify any units that are approaching the end of their useful service life.

(e)  Gives consideration to funding a programme of First Aid training in schools and colleges and the wider community, to include the use of defibrillators. (If the Council was to support first aid training, then funding would need to be identified.)

(f)    Encourages residents to download the Save a Life app as part of a publicity campaign to support British Heart Week (7-15 June 2022).