What assistance is available for the purchase and installation of community public access defibrillators?
Welsh Government has provided £1m additional funding to the Save a Life Cymru Partnership and Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust to purchase defibrillators which community groups and organisations can apply for subject to them meeting certain criteria.
We have also provided £2.5m funding, to continue for three years, to the Save a Life Cymru programme which is working with organisations across Wales, including schools, to raise awareness of the importance of CPR training and the use of defibrillators through the ‘Touch Someone’s Life’ campaign.
Part of this funding has been used to appoint a clinical out of hospital cardiac arrest programme manager for Wales and community support coordinators. Their main focus will be to work with local communities/guardians and WAST to ensure the right processes are in place to maximise the availability of defibrillators, that they are rescue ready and local communities have the opportunities to learn CPR. Save a Life Cymru has also funded a post to work with ‘One Voice Wales’, a national representative body for the Community and Town Council sector in Wales to provide advice and professional support.
The number defibrillators in communities and buildings across Wales is increasing constantly and we would encourage people to register them with ‘The Circuit’ defibrillator database.