A network of life-saving defibrillators across West Lothian must be created to address a “healthcare crisis” of needless deaths from heart attacks in the community, councillors have agreed.
A meeting of the full council this month backed a motion from the depute Provost Peter Heggie calling for a survey of defibrillator access in the county and a call to lobby Holyrood for more funds to develop a network.
In his motion to the council depute Provost Heggie, a Conservative councillor for south Livingston, said: “Deemed a ‘healthcare crisis’, there are around 60,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests that occur every year in the UK. According to the British Heart Foundation, less than 1 in 10 people survive a sudden cardiac arrest. The survival rate for someone suffering a sudden cardiac arrest decreases by 10% every minute.”
