Sellafield donate two defibrillators to GNAAS
Written by John Williamson on 24/07/2023
Sellafield has donated two defibrillators to the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) to help support their life-saving mission.
Staff from the Sellafield Product and Residue Store Retreatment Plant (SRP) Project had ordered additional automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for the site and were left with two surplus devices which they decided to donate to the charity.
Mark White, senior health and safety advisor, and Graham Young, stakeholder manager, for the SRP project, recently visited GNAAS’ base in Langwathby, Penrith to hand over the devices.
Mr White said: “One of my roles is assessing our emergency treatment on site as we’re in an isolated location. I was checking the amount of defibrillators we had, who was trained on them and where they were located, and we decided we needed more.
“Through our supply chain I put a case forward for new defibrillators and we had these two spare that are a slightly older model but we knew that they would be of use to somebody, so we looked at making them available for a charity.”
Health and safety are paramount at Sellafield and all of their staff are provided with training on CPR and how to operate a defibrillator in case they need to use it.
Mr White added: “In our job we understand the importance of defibrillators, and this is why we’ve rolled out training to all of our staff. It’s a life skill, so we’ve made sure everyone has the opportunity to get hands-on experience of practicing CPR and knowing how to use a defibrillator.”
The donated defibrillators were presented to GNAAS paramedic Lee Salmon, who is head of operations west at the charity, and will be stored in vehicles used by staff at GNAAS in case they come across an incident that requires one.
Mr Salmon said: “In two separate occasions over the last 12 months Sellafield staff have benefitted from early defibrillation following a cardiac arrest at work and both times our teams have responded and aided the local ambulance service in getting these patients to definitive care in a timely, efficient and safe manner.
“Sellafield have recently replaced many of their AEDs and very kindly decided to donate these two units to GNAAS. Our teams don’t always travel with frontline life-saving equipment, yet can and do come across incidents, so having an AED in the car will be of great help should the worst happen.”
About GNAAS
· The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) is a charitably funded air ambulance service which provides life-saving care throughout the North East, North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Isle of Man.
· They operate two helicopters 365 days a year and also operate a night-time service in the North East and Cumbria on rapid response vehicles.
· The aircraft cover an area of more than 8,000 square miles and on board are specialist doctors and paramedics who effectively bring the hospital to the patient.
· The level of skill and expertise of the on-board team mean they respond to the most critically ill and injured people, giving them the best chance of survival.
· GNAAS is a progressive organisation which has pioneered pre-hospital care in the region.
· The latest techniques, equipment and drugs are constantly being evaluated to ensure the charity can provide the best care possible for their patients.
· 2022 marked the service providing 20 years of life-saving care. Throughout this time, they have responded to more than 23,500 incidents across the region, with road traffic collisions being the most frequent type of incident responded to by the team.
· They do not receive Government funding and must therefore raise £7.7m a year through public donations to remain operational. For more information visit: https://www.greatnorthairambulance.co.uk/ or follow @gnairambulance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok
