Great Western Air Ambulance Charity has welcomed the Voice’s efforts to improve the network of defibrillators in our area.
Over recent decades, more of the potentially lifesaving devices have been installed, but some are not available 24/7 and others are not registered with the emergency services.
The Voice first highlighted the issue late last year, after an incident in Longwell Green where a caller who stepped in to help an elderly man having a suspected heart attack was directed to a defibrillator some distance away and not to others that were closer.
We discovered that devices in the retail park at Marks & Spencer, Screwfix, Wickes and B&Q could only be reached during shop hours while another in the foyer at Asda was not registered.
This matters because every second counts when someone has a cardiac arrest. For every minute that passes without defibrillation and CPR, a person’s chance of survival goes down by 10 per cent.
Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC) crews attended more than 500 cases of cardiac arrest in 2025. People with the best chance of survival were those who were given early CPR and defibrillation – an electrical shock to restart the heart.
Currently, fewer than one in ten of the 30,000 people who have out-of-hospital cardiac arrests survive. Only 40 per cent receive early CPR and two per cent have a defibrillator used before the ambulance arrives.
A GWAAC spokesperson said: “The availability of defibrillators and the knowledge of how to use them is inadequate.
“We want anyone who suffers a cardiac arrest to receive immediate CPR and defibrillation within five minutes. As a result of this, and other clinical care, there will be fewer avoidable and needless deaths in our communities.
“We are delighted that the Voice is highlighting this issue and urge anyone who would like to know more to look at the Great Western Hearts page on our website for ways they can get involved.”
As well as raising money for new devices, volunteers can help by organising CPR training sessions or signing up as guardians for the defibrillators already in their community.
It’s crucial that devices are available to the community around the clock and are in unlocked cabinets.
All defibrillators should be registered with the national network, The Circuit, which emergency services use to direct 999 callers to the nearest device while they wait for an ambulance to arrive.
Data from The Circuit is also used for the website DefibFinder, which enables the public to find out where the nearest devices are, and the hours they are open
Siston Parish Council recently oversaw the installation of a 24/7 defibrillator on an outside wall at The Horseshoe pub while Bitton Parish Council supported a request from Edgemont View nursing home in Oldland Common for a device, accessible round the clock.