Partick South Parish Church has recently installed Partick’s first, 24 hour, publicly accessible defibrillator. There are a huge number of statistics that show the risk of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) and why defibrillators are so important and should be available in public buildings, leisure centres, workplaces and schools across the country.

There are many factors which can lead to a SCA, such as having high blood pressure, obesity, smoking, high cholesterol levels, congenital heart disease and diabetes. After a SCA, without immediate treatment, 90-95% of SCA victims will die. If a defibrillator is used and effective CPR is performed within 3-5 minutes of cardiac arrest, their chance of survival increases from 6% to 74%. The main reason so few people survive SCA is due to defibrillation not being provided quickly enough after they have collapsed.

Partick South Parish Church Minister, Rev Andy McIntyre said: “We were surprised to learn that there are few defibrillators in Partick, and none which were publicly accessible 24 hours per day. The Church is delighted to host Partick’s first fully public accessible defibrillator. We hope people don’t need to use it but it may save lives if required”.

The defibrillator is located in the yellow box on the wall outside Partick South Parish Church. If you ever need to access it, you should dial 999 in the first instance and the emergency services will inform you on how to proceed.