Experts urge businesses to invest in defibrillators
Monday 18 February 2013
Printable
EmailA health and safety organisation today demanded more businesses invest in defibrillators to prevent deaths from heart attacks at work.
More than half of British businesses do not have a defibrillator, according to 1,000 surveyed by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).
Almost two-thirds of those that didn't have the life-saving equipment were medium to very large companies.
ISOH research and information services manager Jane White said: "We want businesses to take a good look at the number of employees they have, their demographics and the kind of sector they work in, to assess whether they should get a defibrillator on-site."
Defibrillators restart the heart by using an electric shock through patches attached to the torso. It improves survival rates for those who suffer cardiac arrest.
Currently 30,000 people in Britain each year have a cardiac arrest out of hospital and NHS data shows just 18.5 per cent of them survive.
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