The chairman of Fraserburgh’s safety group has raised concerns over the provision of potentially life-saving defibrillators after revealing he did not know how many units were in the town.
Councillor Brian Topping, who is the group’s chairman, has publicly called for a joint project to raise awareness and find out where all the town’s defibrillators are.
He has also said that he hopes his organisation will be able to work with the local community council in driving forward plans to provide extra machines.
These new machines would be freely accessible to members of the public.
Mr Topping said: “We tried a couple of years ago to find out how many defibrillators there were because the Fraserburgh and district community safety group had actually raised over £300 for one. We went to different places and things, but there’s not actually a list of where they all are. There should be something, everyone locally should be able to know where those machines are.
“I suggested that it would be an ideal project – a joint project – between the safety group and the community council. We could, between our funds, purchase one. It’s more likely for folk to have a heart attack or have chest pains than be hit by a car. You could have one down at the beach, or in the town centre.”
He hopes to formally raise the idea of the project with the safety group when they next meet in December.
The idea had been hatched during a meeting of the community council with Brian Milne, area manager for the Scottish ambulance service. A spokesman for the service said they looked forward to continuing to work with the community on such plans.
George Esslemont, the community council’s secretary, revealed he was in favour of the project.
He said: “It could mean the difference between life and death. I’m all for something like that. It’s something everybody should be helping out with.”
St Andrew’s First Aid say that for every minute that passes after a cardiac arrest, the chance of survival is decreased by around 10%.
A spokesman for the charity added: “Certainly, we’re seeing a number of instances of people whose life has been saved by having access to a defibrillator.”