Asda Rochdale stores to get public access defibrillators

Asda Rochdale stores to get public access defibrillators

Asda stores in and around Rochdale will be presented with a public access defibrillator and will train store colleagues in CPR in the coming weeks.

The public access defibrillators in the Asda stores can be used by any member of the public to deliver an electric shock to the heart when someone is having a cardiac arrest.

Your chance of surviving a cardiac arrest fall by 10 per cent for every minute without CPR and defibrillation - immediate action is needed to save a life.

The move ensures Asda’s customers, staff and people in surrounding communities will have the best chance of survival by making this life-saving intervention available while an ambulance crew is on its way.

Amit Aggarwal, Head of Corporate Fundraising at the BHF, adds: “Cardiac arrest survival rates in the UK are astonishingly low. But Asda’s bold commitment to become the first large retailer to have CPR trained colleagues and public access defibrillators in every store will be instrumental in helping communities up and down the country access the life-saving support they need in an emergency. This really could mean the difference between life and death for someone having a cardiac arrest while doing something as ordinary as shopping.”

More than 60,000 people suffer a cardiac arrest outside of hospital every year in the UK. But only one in ten people survive.

The partnership is the latest step in the BHF’s campaign to improve cardiac arrest survival rates across the UK.

Asda will roll out the defibrillators in its 568 stores, 25 depots and offices by the end of 2014.

The BHF is also working with local ambulance trusts to run familiarisation training for 12,000 Asda colleagues on how to use the defibrillator.