County bid for first aid cash

HEART attack first aid equipment could be installed in stations as part of a £6million cash injection.

Money from the National Lottery could see vital defibrillators installed in Suffolk's bus and rail stations and other public places.

Matthew Ware, spokesman for the East Anglian Ambulance Trust, said the equipment could see lives saved.

He said: "If there is a defibrillator on scene (where a patient is suffering a heart attack) it cuts the response time from cardiac arrest to treatment.

"It could be the difference between life and death."

The East Anglian Ambulance Trust is being given the chance to get the money for new defibrillators as well as funding for a community defibrillator officer.

Defibrillators deliver a controlled electric shock through the chest wall to the heart in order to restore a normal heartbeat.

National Lottery funding from the New Opportunities Fund has been given to the British Heart Foundation.

The foundation is using the money to buy 2,300 defibrillators and training equipment for 32 Ambulance Trusts across the country, including the East Anglian Trust.

The trust is being invited to apply to the scheme to place defibrillators in community places where people most at risk of having a heart attack will benefit, such as bus stations and shopping centres.

Only two per cent of the tens of thousands of people who suffer from cardiac arrest have a chance of survival.

Mr Ware said if successful, the trust would place defibrillators in areas like train stations and places where a lot of people gather.

The defibrillator officer would then train staff to use them on patients.

David Mann, regional director of the British Heart Foundation said: "The time from collapse to defibrillation following a cardiac arrest is critical and early defibrillation – within four to five minutes- gives the best possible chance of survival.

"The provision of additional defibrillators and better co-ordination of first responder schemes will save many lives."