Hambleden hopes to be trailblazer in life saving scheme (From This Is Local London)

Hambleden hopes to be trailblazer in life saving scheme

3:16pm Thursday 14th May 2009

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VILLAGERS are hoping to become trailblazers for Buckinghamshire when they roll out a “groundbreaking” scheme to save heart attack victims in difficult to reach rural areas.

Hambleden Parish Council have bought four portable defibrillators (AEDs) – life-saving devices which can be used by untrained volunteers to re-start the heart.

Charity Arrhythmia Alliance is running a national campaign to place AEDs in every community.

It says the machines, which administer a shock to restore the heart's rhythm, are critical for survival.

The campaign is backed by The Resuscitation Council.

AEDS will be stored in locked cabinets and placed in central locations such as village halls in Frieth, Hambleden, Fingest and Skirmett.

If a patient collapses a resident can call 999 and then be directed to the nearest unit and given an access code. The machines talk through the process with the user step by step.

Cllr Susan Walker, who has lead the campaign, said: “It's ground breaking. In rural areas ambulances services just cant get to someone in eight minutes, which is what we need if someone is has had a heart attack.

“The whole objective is to offer support before the ambulance arrives, you are lucky if they can get here in 20 to 25 minutes.”

Hambleden is following in the footsteps of Chew Valley in Somerset, who pioneered the system in 2007.

It is the first parish council in Buckinghamshire to adopt it.

Cllr Walker said: “It is a positive program to help save lives that Hambleden Parish Council is implementing for their residents and we hope other parish councils will roll it out as well.”

She said the council had been convinced to go forward with the scheme after a presentation by South Central Ambulance Service in November but they were now “dragging their feet”.

SCAS already run a system called Community First Responders (CFR) , where volunteers are trained to treat patients for a range of emergency conditions.

Cllr Walker said the portable defibrillators will be a “complimentary” support.

“It's a great programme but there are not enough volunteers - that's the pivotal issue, ” she said.

She added although there may be a responder in a neighbouring village two miles away, the twisting, narrow, rural lanes make the villages difficult to reach in the crucial eight minute window.

Dick Tracey, divisional manager of Community First Responders, said: “We have a tried and trusted way of getting defibrillators into the community- through the community first response team.

“In another village just up the road of similar size we have actually been able to recruit a number of volunteers and we would like to explore this further in Hambleden.”

There are over 300 CFR volunteers across Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire who undertake 20 hours of training initially before a six-monthly refresher course.

Mr Tracey said he “would certainly look at other avenues of getting defibrillators in to the community and other ways of achieving that” if enough volunteers could not be found but “to get to the optimum level people should have some level of training” to use the AEDs.

He said he would be holding a meeting with Hambleden Parish Council before the end of June to discuss the matter.

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