Community Defibrillator and CPR Training Programme

It's been quite a journey and quite a learning curve but finally the Astwood Public Access Defibrillator (PAD) has been installed and is fully commissioned.

There have been a number of obstacles along the way to getting this first installation completed but the learning and understanding of community based installations has been well worth the effort.

Bureaucracy can get in the way but tenacity pays off and to see this first telephone box installation fully commissioned definitely makes the effort worthwhile.

Funding this and hopefully many other public devices, has been down to own wonderful donors both through the GlobalGiving contributions and grant funding that we have been able to secure. Our ambition is to provide a PAD in all areas of Redditch that are not protected and we will be starting our next campaign in early September. We have sufficient funds to meet half of the cost that is required for our next installation and if you wanted to contribute to the 2020 campaign that would be amazing!

As you'll have read in our project details, the ultimate aim is to ensure that all public access areas such as Shopping Centres, Community Centres, Parkland, rural locations, community/village shopping precincts house a defibrillator and that those in the area are confident to use them but importantly know it is there.    Retrospective research proves that increasing the automated external defibrillator effective location range can improve cardiac arrest coverage by 15%.  

This project will save lives and raise skills within the community and on behalf of Redditch Kingfisher Rotary Club and the people of Redditch a massive 'THANK YOU' to everyone who has contributed (financially or by time) to start the realisation of this vision!

Links:

• Join the Phase Two Crowdfunding Campaign!

A massive thank you for supporting our project to install Public Access Defibrillators in Redditch!

Great News is that the telephone kiosk in Astwood Bank identified for our first installation has this week been decommissioned by BT and handed over to Community Heartbeat Trust (CHT) for conversion on our behalf. 

We met with the CHT team on Wednesday and have confirmed our order for a ‘Managed Solution’ as follows:

• Lifeline VIEW defibrillator (incl. carry case and spare electrodes)
• ShockBox Rotaid cabinet 
• Telephone kiosk Battenberg signage (see below)
• Community signage 
• Rescuer safety kit 
• Delivery

Total initial donation = £1585

In addition we will incur costs for:

• Installation by CHT = £200 + VAT (covers electrician)
• Managed solution set-up = £100 (insurance set up)
• Annual support agreement = £135 per annum + VAT.

Total investment for year one is £2087

There is an ongoing cost of £135 per annum for the support agreement and we will engage with local community to support this.

OUR NEXT STEPS

1. To clean the telephone kiosk and tile the floor – volunteers required
2. Painting the kiosk to enhance the visual impact – volunteers required 
3. Set a date and venue for the CPR training that CHT is going to provide - this training is open to the community

 The defibrillator could be here within a couple of weeks so we are getting our work plans in place NOW!

We hope you are as pleased with this progress/news as we are; the Public Access Defibrillator will be a great community asset and one day may well save someone’s life!

 When we complete this installation we'll be onto the next so PLEASE keep your donations flowing in...

Links:

• Read about the features of the Lifeline View Defibrillator