Defibrillators to be installed at train stations

More life-saving defibrillators are going to be installed at train stations in Herefordshire, Monmouthshire and Shropshire.

The work is the latest phase of plans to install over 200 defibrillators at stations and in communities throughout Wales and the borders, which began in February 2022.

Defibrillators are important portable life-saving devices that can give a casualty’s heart an electric shock when it has stopped beating, normally in a sudden cardiac arrest. According to British Heart Foundation Cymru, there are around 2,800 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Wales each year, but just one in 20 people survive.

Survival rates fall by 10% every minute without CPR or by using a defibrillator and using a defibrillator within three minutes of a cardiac arrest can improve a person's chance of survival by as much as 70%.

Once ready for use the defibrillators will be registered on the British Heart Foundation’s bespoke portal, called The Circuit, in partnership with St John Ambulance, the Resuscitation Council UK and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives. The Circuit maps out defibrillators for NHS ambulance services across the UK so in the crucial moments after a cardiac arrest, they can swiftly direct members of the public to the nearest defibrillator.

Defibrillators will installed at Abergavenny, Hereford, Leominster, Shrewsbury and Gobowen railway stations.