Picture credit: Stephen Waller
(L-R): Oliver Yarrow, Duty Operational Manager, East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust; Lisa Chambers, Cabinet Member for Environment and Property Management, Suffolk County Council; Paul Smith, Contracts Manager, FCC Environment; and Mark Deer, Service Delivery Ifficer, waste management services, Suffolk County Council.
Staff at the 11 household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) in Suffolk are being provided with ‘lifesaving defibrillators and training’ as part of a new partnership between waste management company FCC Environment, Suffolk County Council and the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
The new scheme has been introduced so that anyone suffering a cardiac arrest at the HWRCs can be given medical treatment as soon as possible. According to the UK Resuscitation Council, automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) should be available wherever medical treatment is ‘more than five minutes away’, as the chance of survival following a cardiac arrest decreases by 23 per cent per minute.
Councillor Lisa Chambers, Cabinet Member for Environment and Property Management at Suffolk County Council, said: “I am really pleased that we have been able to provide the household waste recycling centres with these lifesaving devices and the training for the staff to be able to use them safely. Our sites are very safe but, with the numbers of people using the service, we feel that it is important to provide the best care we can for our customers.”
Jason Gillingham of the East of England Ambulance Service commented: “Being able to quickly get a lifesaving defibrillator to a person who suffers a cardiac arrest along with someone trained to use it and carry out some basic resuscitation is key to being able to help restart a patient’s heart.
“We are pleased to be able to work with Suffolk County Council and FCC Environment on this project as increasing the number of defibrillators in public places will help to improve cardiac arrest survival rates across the region.”
Simon Hale, Regional Operations Manager for FCC Environment, added: “These lifesaving devices and the training provided to our site staff have made the household waste recycling centres a safer environment to work in and visit.”
According to FCC Environment, which manages Suffolk HWRCs, over one million people visited the sites in 2012.
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How will the government and DMOs address the challenges of including glass in DRS while ensuring a level playing field across the UK?
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