King's Lynn, Downham and Watlington among train stations with life-saving equipment
Great Northern, has fitted life-saving defibrillators to every one of their stations, including at Lynn, Downham Market and Watlington.
This is one of the biggest roll-out on UK rail network and is part of a £15 million station improvement programme
Celebrating Restart A Heart Day last Saturday, Great Northern and its fellow Govia-owned train operators, Southern and Thameslink, announced they will shortly have publicly-accessible, life-saving automated external defibrillators (AEDs) at every one of their 238 stations.
A station assistant has already used one of the devices to save a passenger’s life in Potters Bar.
Sussex Heart Charity and other organisations supplied many of the original AEDs but the network has now been massively extended and upgraded with more defibrillators as part of a wider £15m stations improvement programme which involves over 1,000 projects, many suggested by local passenger and community groups.
More than 30,000 people suffer cardiac arrest out of hospital across the UK every year and fewer than one in 10 survive. However, early chest compressions (CPR) and defibrillation can double the chances of surviving.
Sam Facey, head of zero harm in the safety and health team at Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), said: “By fitting these life-saving AEDs, we believe we’ve made a genuinely positive contribution to the communities across our vast network, which covers London and nine counties.z
“All our defibrillators are publicly accessible, so of huge benefit not only to those travelling with us but also the communities we serve. They’re fully automatic, anyone can use them and our staff are being given familiarisation training.”
The AEDs are ‘smart’, giving verbal instructions and then shocking a patient only if they need it. They also use remote monitoring to sound the alert on dying batteries or out-of-date chest pads and all the cabinets are being wired in to keep them warm and ready to go.
Sam Facey said: “We’re fitting the same model across our network to provide consistency of quality, staff familiarity and maintenance, and at some stations, where we were updating an existing AED, we’ve been able to return the original device to local charities for use at a second location in the community.”
In an emergency, 999 operatives will shortly know the location of every AED and will direct people to them if they are close enough.
Sue Hampshire, director of clinical and service development at Resuscitation Council UK, said: “The installation of defibrillators at all Govia Thameslink stations is a fantastic move, and we encourage passengers and the wider community to develop the skills and confidence to use these lifesaving machines. It’s important that people can access defibrillators in busy areas, where they are likely to be needed.
“Restart a Heart is all about getting hands on and learning essential skills in CPR and defibrillation, and we’d encourage everyone to get involved so they can help someone if they collapse and stop breathing. Learn more about how to get hands on with Restart a Heart here.”
