EEAST celebrates Valentine’s Day with good news for hearts across the region.

A record 10,000 life-saving defibrillators have been registered across the East of England – just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Earlier this year, East of England Ambulance Service took part in British Heart Foundation’s celebration of 100,000 defibrillators being registered on the national defibrillator network.

EEAST set its own target of having 10,000 defibrillators registered in the six counties of the East of England region – and has now smashed that target. Defibrillators are life-saving devices that can help get the heart beating again when someone is in cardiac arrest. Together with good Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) they can make the difference for someone surviving a cardiac arrest outside of hospital.

‘The Circuit’, the national defibrillator network, is mapping every defibrillator in the UK so 999 services can quickly direct members of the public to them in an emergency. The Circuit also helps people maintain their defibrillators by sending reminders to check their device is ready. Dr Simon Walsh is medical director at EEAST and represents the National Ambulance Services Medical Directors' Group on The Circuit’s National Advisory Board.

He said: “This is a fabulous achievement. Lots of organisations now own defibrillators, but our campaign focussed on getting people to register them so that we can direct the public to them in an emergency.

“We’re delighted to hit this target, but we’d like to see even more defibrillators registered. If we don’t know about it our call handlers may not be able to use it when it really matters.

“If your business, club or organisation has a defibrillator, you need to do three simple things to make it ready to save lives:

1. Register your defibrillator on The Circuit - unless its registered, our call handlers can’t direct people to it. It only takes five minutes.
2. Ensure it is maintained and its batteries are changed regularly – or else it might not be ready when it’s really needed.
3. Keep its status updated on The Circuit. If your defibrillator is ever used it will be marked as out of service so that, in an emergency, people aren’t directed to a machine that is not ready. After use, your defibrillator needs to be checked, the battery and any disposable parts replaced – and its status updated on The Circuit. That way we will know it’s back in service.”

If you're not sure of the status of your defibrillator, you can check it on: www.defibfinder.uk

Find out more and register on The Circuit at EEAST’s defibrillator page: www.eastamb.nhs.uk/your-service/campaigns/the-circuit

You don’t need to be trained to use a defibrillator. But if you would like some free training in your community on how to perform Basic Life Support (BLS) and use a defibrillator, please contact volunteer@eastamb.nhs.uk.