Unipart Logistics has secured new defibrillators for our sites and donated three to the St John’s Ambulance Service: all of which could help to save lives both within our business and in the local community.
UL Head of Forum Clive Burns explains, “The idea came from our local site Forums, who have been instrumental in getting these into our sites. Many of us have seen the impact of heart disease within our own family and friends network, so this was something very important to many of us. We were delighted that UL agreed to fund a defibrillator for each of our UK sites.”
UL Health & Safety Manager Holly Harris goes on to explain, “Whilst we already had defibrillators on a couple of our sites, we knew that this was the right thing to do for our people. The defibs are now being located at each site and all our first aiders are being trained on how to use them in an emergency: although the British Heart Foundation have been keen to stress this week that they are incredibly easy and intuitive to use.”
“We’re aware that simply having the defibrillators on site isn’t enough: everyone needs to know exactly where they are and who is trained to use them, so we will be making sure this is clearly communicated to all our colleagues as the defibrillators are installed across our sites.”
Defibrillators have been in the news this week as the British Heart Foundation announced plans to create a nationwide map of locations where community defibrillators can be accessed.
UL will be registering site defibrillators on the national database when this becomes available so that this potentially lifesaving resource can also be accessed by other businesses or members of the public in an emergency situation.
Chris Houghton, District Manager for St John’s Ambulance, said, “Every year 30,000 people suffer a cardiac arrest outside of hospital and without early defibrillation the chances of survival are minimal. This week we were reminded of this when a St John Ambulance volunteer, whilst on a train traveling to work, successfully saved someone’s life because he was able to administer early CPR and use a public access defibrillator. The donation of these three defibrillators will ensure that not only our volunteers but also the community can do the same. Our communities will now have the ability to be difference between a life lost and a life saved”.