A North Essex school is fundraising to buy a defibrillator after a nearby leisure centre refused to allow staff to use their own lifesaving kit when a teacher collapsed.
Colleagues at St Andrews Primary School, Halstead, managed to get the teacher’s heart going again after she went into cardiac arrest at the end of the school day. Paramedics arrived and the teacher, Miss Eade, was flown to a nearby hospital by air ambulance and is now recovering.
Bur first aid efforts were hampered when school staff who had run to the Fusion Lifestyle leisure centre across the school field to request a defibrillator were told they could not use it – centre staff said health and safety meant the machine prevented it being shared out while it could also be needed if there was an incident at the centre at the same time.
The Health & Safety Executive said there are no regulations which would prevent the sharing of a defibrillator. Fusion Lifestyle commented that “Unfortunately, Fusion Lifestyle was unable to share its own defibrillator due to the stringent nature of the health and safety processes and procedures surrounding the use of such equipment.”
This case highlights the need for communication between interested parties on shared use of first aid facilities such as defibrillators. It should also prompt a review of the reasonableness of H&S procedures which are so “stringent” that shared use of such facilities is prohibited whatever the circumstances.
Source: East Anglian Daily Times