Question reference: S5W-08858
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 20 April 2017
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Current status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 5 May 2017
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many defibrillator road signs there are in each local authority area; what action it is taking to encourage a greater roll out of these; what its position is on using existing signposts to accommodate the signs; how many use the internationally-recognised defibrillator sign, and what discussions it has had with Transport Scotland regarding the use of (a) the internationally-recognised and (b) other forms of sign.
Answer
There is at present no standard defibrillator road sign in Scotland or internationally.
Local PAD signage is important and it is recommended, in line with Resuscitation Council (UK) guidance, there should be signs in premises directing people to a PAD and exactly where it is located. The Resuscitation Council (UK) has developed a single defibrillator sign that is due to be introduced next month.
The Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Strategy for Scotland sets out our commitment to improve outcomes after out of hospital cardiac arrest. Using a defibrillator to restart a heart is one in a series of actions that improve survival after cardiac arrest. The main ways we are improving rapid defibrillator deployment under the OHCA Strategy are: despatching emergency service vehicles or community first responders with defibrillator or directing a bystander to a publicly available defibrillator (PAD).
The SAS is working to map all PADs onto the Ambulance Control Centres system so they will be able to rapidly deploy PADs in cases of OHCA. We encourage members of the public, communities, businesses and other partners responsible for PADs to register the details. This can be done through a dedicated section of the SAS website at the following link; http://www.scottishambulance.com/YourCommunity/pad.aspx.
Further information can be found here: OHCA - A Strategy for Scotland; http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0047/00474154.pdf and OHCA - A Strategy for Scotland Review; http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0051/00510496.pdf.