There are two 24 hour Community use defibrillators in locked cabinets:

Grimston: Red telephone box opposite the Clock Tower at the corner of Lynn Road and Gayton Road
Pott Row: Yellow cabinet on the wall of the Village Hall, Cliffe en Howe Road  

Important information about how to access a Community Defibrillator

This is useful advice about the use of  Community defibrillators in that they will only be activated as long as certain conditions are present, and 999 ambulance operators are instructed to ask relevant questions to ascertain if a defibrillator is needed. In addition, the presence of an ‘Activation radius’ or a ‘lone rescuer,’ will determine if a defibrillator is needed or can be accessed.

• A 999/112 call must always be undertaken whilst at the patient. The reason for this is the 999 operators will pick up automatically the location of the call, either directly from the landline or via GPS if a modern mobile. Thus, they already know the address, or very likely the location. Do not go to the cabinet, then call 999.

• Once the 999 call is received by the ambulance operators, they are tasked with asking 2 questions – is the patient breathing? Is the patient conscious? The ‘on-screen script’ will not allow a process outside of the defined script. If deemed necessary they will then ask you if a defibrillator is nearby. The 999 operators may say the defib is not visible, this does not mean it is not registered.

• They will then tell the caller how to undertake CPR – this is a requirement within 60seconds of the call – and if it is determined a defibrillator is required, where the nearest active one is and how to get access. This shortens response times and also stops the unnecessary use of defibrillators.

• What they cannot do is take a second 999 call from the defibrillator cabinet location and allocate it to an existing 999 call from a different (original) location. A delay occurs when a second 999 ambulance operator is trying to find the first 999 calls to see if a defibrillator had already been allocated, or if it was required.

• If you are on your own with the patient, you will not be sent to fetch the defibrillator, but stay doing CPR until help arrives.

• Finally, sometimes the emergency is further away from the defibrillator than the local ‘activation’ radius. In this case, the operator will not know of a defibrillator nearby and cannot activate it.

Information provided by the Community Heartbeat Trust for Grimston Parish Council