More lives will be saved thanks to The Circuit milestone

More defibrillators are available than ever before to help save the lives of people in cardiac arrest across the Yorkshire region, thanks to a ground-breaking campaign.

The Circuit, run by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), in partnership with the Resuscitation Council (UK), St John Ambulance and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, is a first-of-its-kind programme to connect all defibrillators in the UK to a single network, and became fully operational in 2022.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service has supported the campaign by helping with the transfer of the region’s community-based defibrillators onto the database.

The Circuit has just celebrated reaching the goal of 100,000 defibrillators being registered at locations around the UK including schools and supermarkets, libraries and gyms, churches and pubs. In Yorkshire there are 7,738 registered defibrillators.

This means that when someone has a cardiac arrest and a bystander calls 999, the ambulance service can direct them to their nearest registered defibrillator while they wait for the ambulance to arrive.

Warren Bostock, Community Defibrillation Officer for Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said: “There are over 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests annually in the UK. Tragically, less than one in 10 survive. However, early cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the use of a defibrillator can dramatically improve a patient’s chance of survival.

“The number of defibrillators that can be accessed by communities across Yorkshire has soared in recent years which means there are more devices than ever before to help save lives.

“At Yorkshire Ambulance Service we activate an average of 1,700 defibrillators to emergencies every single month. The Circuit has not only simplified the process for registering defibrillators but also sends maintenance reminders to those who look after the devices as well as a notification when one has been used so it can be checked and made available for the next emergency.

“However, we know there are still many defibrillators in communities which aren’t registered, particularly those in places like business and other locations which are not open 24/7, so we would encourage everyone who looks after one of the devices ensure it has been added to The Circuit.”

Defibrillators can be registered for free on The Circuit. For advice about purchasing a defibrillator, visit the Yorkshire Ambulance Service website or email yas.communityresilienceaed@nhs.net