Vale of Belvoir Study - Community Heartbeat

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Case Study - Vale of Belvoir

Vale of Belvoir - a HeartBeat Community

In the six month period between September 2008 and February 2009 there were 3636 cardiac and respiratory arrests in the Vale of Belvoir and Grantham area. An area with active Community Responder schemes, CFRs only attended 361, or about 10%, of these. The Vale and surrounding areas are very rural, and are also typified by having a very large transitory population due to a large number of sports events and tourism. The area runs at about twice the national average for Sudden Cardiac Arrest.

As a result there have been a significant move in the villages of the Vale to bring Public Access Defibrillation (cPAD) schemes to the forefront, and with the help of local community groups such as Vale of Belvoir Lions, Bottesford Parish Council and Belvoir First Aid, working with the National Charity The Community HeartBeat Trust, several schemes are now established, with many more in the pipeline.

The village of Bottesford is one such village. With a population of approximately 3000, Bottesford now has 3 established cPAD schemes with two more about to be installed. “The village is very spread out” says Nigel Davies President of Lions. “We have had incidences of a cardiac arrest occurring and no ambulance or other medical support arriving for 20+ minutes. We therefore felt that in order to help our residents, we would fund raise for at least four units, positioned around the village, to at least give the public some support, which I am pleased to say has been very forthcoming. It is hoped to place the fifth at Belvoir High School too.”

Part of this installation is an awareness campaign and training of the local populace in Basic Life Support, supported by Belvoir First Aid.

Another village that now has a cPAD scheme is the village of Stathern. Placed on the wall of the Plough Public House, right in the centre of the village, Stathern has had its fair share of SCA in the past few years, with very few having any timely support from medical services. Other villages in the Vale area are keen to follow suit.

Both of these communities are now ‘HeartBeat Communities’ and hope that the provision of cPAD schemes will enhance the life of the local residents.

National registered charity number 1132824 committed to defibrillators in the community

Disclaimer - CHT are not responsible for your fund raising, nor your cPAD operations. CHTs only aim is to support your installation of a cPAD scheme in the most cost effective way possible. This website, and any downloaded information, is for information only on how to go about obtaining and installing your cPAD, and other relevant information. All copyrights and trademarks are recognised. All support for the cPAD will be undertaken by the village committee responsible and via standard manufacturers warranties. Your training organisation will only be responsible for the initial awareness training and not for the functioning or maintenance of the AED. Please do not send any monies to CHT until you have registered your scheme, and have agreement from the local ambulance service for the establishment of a cPAD scheme. All schemes must be registered with the local ambulance service (CHT will also undertake this or you can do via this site, but this does not remove responsibility for you to notify the local ambulance service of your AED location). 999/112 (ambulance) must always be called prior to using a cPAD equipment. All schemes will be asked to sign an agreement taking responsibility for their own fund raising and operation of the cPAD equipment. It is your responsibility to maintain the equipment in working order and to make sure the local ambulance service is aware of this. Defibfinder is a service provided by Safeheart Ltd and all data and information contained therein is the responsibility of Safeheart and is provided for general information only, and should not be used in preference to dialling 999. Always dial 999 in an emergency.