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Margaret Young
Member - 2 posts
Would like to clarify the regulations/recommendations around defibrillators in the workplace, should we be providing them along with trained staff who can apply them or are they there purely for emergency services to use.....? Do they require signage, e.g. trained professionals only to use etc; ?
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Gillian Nightingale
Member - 175 posts
Hi Margaret
There is no legal requiment for defibrillators to be used in workplaces; the decision should be based on the risk within your particular workplace and whether as an employer you are happy that you can manage their use. If you have a defibrillator on site it does have to be used by trained members of staff. Companies who have decided to provide this equipment are intending that it is available for use in a situation where the emergency services have not yet arrived on scene with their own equipment.
Training some of your staff is relatively easy, and can be covered in an intial one-day course, but does need to be repeated every year by the staff involved (probably in a 4-hour refresher course.) Please give our Training department a call if you would like further information, 0871 777 8881.
If you do provide a defibrillator on site, it needs to be locked and appropriate signage and key arrangements put in place to ensure access is only for trained staff.
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Andrew Walker
Member - 6 posts
Hi Gillian,
w.r.t. whether the AED is locked away. The chances of the key/s being misplaced or unavailable during an emergency are tangible.
The AEDs available for non-professionals have a very high degree of automatic safeguards so it won't operate unless it detects the appropriate electrical signals from the patient. The type we have doesn't even have a button to operate - it's completely under software control so cannot be misused.
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Tanya Bartram
Member - 1 post
The Defibrillator does not necessarly need to be locked away however - it does need to be put in a safe area. Not all defibs are as user friendly as the one that Andrew Walker, has although they are all user friendly in their own way. However stored with them will be a safe razor to shave any hair. Also close by should be a towel to ensure that the casualty could be dry. There are also the pads for the casualty's chest and the workplace needs to ensure that this is not for public use. I believe the ones on the underground are clearly signed and also within small cases like a fire alarm that have to be broken in an emergency. Anything is open to abuse!!!! That is why all first aid kits only have a minium amount of bandages and that they need to be checked so that nobody goes to them and finds them empty!!
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Anthony Buck
Member - 15 posts
Defibrillators do not need to be locked away and this can be counterproductive - the effectiveness of the AED lessens as time passes even if CPR is being given in the meantime.
After all Public Access AEDs are freely available in unlocked (but alarmed) cabinets in airports and train stations and the like.
No legal requirement for first aid at work purposes, your first aid assessment of need determines if you think they are required. Only requires a 4 or 8 hour initial course and annual 4 hour refresher to use, as there are plenty of visual and audio prompts and they don't let you do anything the machine thinks is not required
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Rosemary King
Member - 10 posts
We have a defibrilator in all of our office locations and staff are trained on them.
However to the point, we never lock them away as they are safety equipment, the same as a First Aid box is and in practice they are more or less idiot proof with a very postive instruction voice telling operators what to do at every stage.
Locking them away and putting up signs about trained users defeats the whole objective of quick usage in case of heart attack.
We also tell all of our neighbours that we have one so that they too can benefit from its use.
For every minute oif delay in using the AED the life expectantcy drops significantly.
Dont lock them up or discourage staff to use them. It might be you who needs the AED one way.
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Andy Hawley
Member - 1 post
Locking away defibrillators? Whatever next. Padlocks on fire extinguishers???
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Lisa Dormon
Member - 24 posts
My husband used to service defibs, many years ago. Quite often when he went into care homes, he would be told to wait while they found the defib. Only for it to be carefully locked away in a store cupboard, under some blankets, with dead batteries.
Lisa
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