South Cotswolds MP calls for wider defibrillator coverage in rural areas

The MP for the South Cotswolds is calling for equal access to defibrillators across the country.

Speaking Parliament recently, she said defibrillators should become a standard requirement in the planning process of new housing and industrial estates.

It is as ambulance wait times can be up to almost 50% longer in rural areas than they are in towns.

Roz Savage said: “If developers include them from the outset, the cost is very reasonable and far lower than trying to retrofit them later on.

“New estates should be designed so that no home is more than 400 metres from a defibrillator because when cardiac arrest happens every moment counts.

“Each year, thousands of lives are lost because help simply doesn’t arrive quickly enough. By ensuring that defibrillators are widespread, visible and easy to access, we can change that.”

Lechlade – which lies on the border of Gloucestershire and Swindon – recently saw its first lamp-post powered defibrillators installed, making it the first town in the South West to adopt such a scheme.

The Lechlade and District Lions and local Community First Responders installed eight new defibrillators in the area’s towns and villages, leading to Lechlade and Fairford now having one of the best defibrillator coverages in the country as well as the first 24/7 strategic plan for defibrillator access in the UK.

The total cost of £24,000 was covered by donations to a fundraiser.

The team is now working to raise more money to be able to install further defibrillators on the area’s larger residential estates.

“We should be broadening this approach across the whole country”, added Roz Savage.

“Every community across the whole country deserves the same safety net.”

She also stressed that survival “should not come down to luck”.

Roz Savage urged: “Let’s make defibrillators as commonplace as fire extinguishers and as trusted as seatbelts.”