The Department for Health & Social Care has announced a fresh £1million fund, dedicated to installing defibrillators for community spaces.
The fund, which will provide for an estimated 1,000 new defibrillators, will be available for bids from community organisations and will be in the form of match funding. Successful applicants will be asked to match the funding they receive partially or fully, potentially doubling capacity.
Robert Largan MP has welcomed the seven-figure investment, which is the latest stage of multiple releases totalling millions of pounds.
The funding, announced on 28 June, will be granted to applicants who demonstrate that defibrillators will be placed in areas where they are most needed, such as places with high footfall, vulnerable people, rural areas or due to the nature of the activity at the site.
Examples could include town halls, community centres, local shops, post offices and local parks.
Mr Largan is pleased that the government is building even further on previous funding schemes for communities, on top of the effort to roll out automated external defibrillators to every school by the end of this academic year.
That the aim of the fund is to ensure that defibrillators are evenly spread throughout communities and are easily accessible if someone is experiencing a cardiac arrest.
Interested organisations can find out more information about the fund and apply for a share of the funding here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/bids-invited-for-1-million-defibrillator-fund
Robert Largan, MP for High Peak, commented:
“I’m really pleased to see the government rolling out yet another round of funding for automated external defibrillators.
“This is the latest effort to add to the estimated 100,000 defibrillators across the UK and it’s a great opportunity for community organisations to ensure access to these life-saving pieces of equipment.
“It’s great to see the Government committing further to widening the availability of these devices in community spaces as well as in schools, which should all have received a defibrillator by the end of this academic year.”
