Wellum House Dental Health Centre in Andover has now installed a Public Access Defibrillator (PAD) unit to help those who have a cardiac arrest in the local community.
The installation on 23 July is a result of the surgery’s partners responding to calls from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Dental Committee (LDC) encouraging all of the area’s dentists to apply for LDC funding from NHS England (Wessex) to site an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) in a PAD access cabinet.
Nic Morecroft, Divisional Responder Manager, SCAS, said: “We’re really pleased to see Wellum House Dental Health Surgery install its AED. We know that public access defibrillators, combined with prompt and effective bystander CPR, can help people who are having a cardiac arrest in the first few crucial minutes before an ambulance crew arrives.”
Tony Lynn, Chairman of Hampshire and Isle of Wight LDC, said: “Dentists of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are grateful to the Wessex Area Team for providing the funding to place AEDs on the outside of NHS dental practices.“
“An AED is an essential piece of equipment for all dental practices and it makes sense to place them on a wall outside the practice because in this way the whole community has access to this life saving device at any time.”
Philip Wray and John Cavanagh, owners of Wellum House Dental Health Centre, said: “We became aware of the PAD scheme when we both supported the installation of units in our villages near Andover.“
“From this, the idea was presented to the LDC by Philip to encourage dentists to put their own AED units outside dental premises. We thought it would be awful if a device which could have been used to save someone’s life but was locked inside a practice.“
“Consequently, the LDC gave their full backing to the scheme and we hope that over 70 extra units will be soon available in Hampshire.”
Brendan Mahood, Workplace and Community Territory Manager, Physio Control, said: “Physio-Control are delighted to be working in partnership with SCAS and the Hampshire & Isle of Wight LDC on this Public Access Defibrillation initiative. Increasing the amount of Public Access Defibrillators is central to the mission of our company and this initiative will help to protect the local communities and increase chances of survival from Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA).”
South Central Ambulance Service website
