Schools are being urged to register their defibrillators on a national database after charities and ambulance services warned over half are “invisible” to emergency services.
In early 2023, the Department for Education began sending defibrillators to all schools that did not already have them.
It followed a campaign from the Oliver King Foundation and its founder Mark King, who lost his 12-year-old son to cardiac arrest while swimming at school in 2011.
But figures published by the British Heart Foundation today show that of the roughly 20,000 state primary and secondary schools in England, only 8,775 have registered their device with The Circuit, its national defibrillator network.
This means more than 10,000, or around 57 per cent, are “hidden from the emergency services”.
This is despite the government saying when it announced the rollout that it would support schools in making them available to their communities.
‘Take just five minutes to register’
The Circuit was set up by the BHF and Resuscitation Council UK, St John Ambulance, 14 UK ambulance services and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives.
The group of charities said “when defibrillators aren’t registered ambulance services cannot locate them if someone needs them in an emergency”.
They are calling on those responsible for the defibrillators to be “proactive and take just five minutes to register their device on The Circuit on its website as there is no cost to register and it could save lives”.
The charities said that in “many suburban areas, schools are the nearest place people can access a defibrillator”. Their research in the West Midlands found around a third of 30,000 annual out-of-hospital cardiac arrests “occur within 300m of a school”.
Of 16,700 primary schools, 7,168, or 42 per cent, have a defibrillator registered. Of 3,400 secondary schools, 1,390, or 41 per cent, have a device registered.
Judy O’Sullivan, programme director at British Heart Foundation, said: “Schools play a vital role in society, educating future generations but they also have the opportunity to help save lives in the event of a cardiac arrest
“We are urging those responsible for defibrillators in schools to protect students, staff and the wider community in the event of a cardiac arrest by taking five mins to register their defibrillator online.”
School staff saved local man’s life
The charity revealed that last December, two teachers at Oakwood Park Grammar School in Maidstone “saved the life of a local man as their defibrillator was registered on The Circuit”.
Headteacher Sarah Craig said staff from a local pub called to say a man had collapsed and the ambulance service had located the school’s defibrillator as the nearest.
“Two of the staff raced to the scene, three minutes away, and saw a man lying on the floor being given CPR. They used the defibrillator to give him a shock and minutes later the paramedics arrived.
“We are so incredibly proud to have teachers who are also lifesavers. They had the foresight to register our defibrillator so the ambulance service could locate it in an emergency and then they remained calm in using the defibrillator when an emergency struck.”
