The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) has installed public access defibrillator (PADs) in all of the SCTS buildings across Scotland.
All of the PADs have been registered with the Scottish Ambulance Service and there have to date been three occasions when members of the public have been directed to a court to get our defibrillator to help a casualty in the community.
Around 3,500 people in Scotland undergo attempted resuscitation each year following an Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest, but only around 1 in 12 people survive. Using a defibrillator alongside CPR can greatly increase survival rates, but to be most effective, a defibrillator needs to be used within the first 3-5 minutes of collapse.
Eric McQueen, SCTS Chief Executive said “Scotland is committed to improving survival rates after an Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) and aims to become a world leader in response to OHCA by 2020. We want to play our part by rolling our public access defibrillators across out estate, making sure that anyone using our buildings, or the local community, are closer to this life-saving equipment should they suffer a cardiac arrest.”
For more information on Public Access Defibrillators please see links:
Defibrillator - what is it and how to use it - British Heart Foundation
Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Strategy for Scotland