New Normal: Gloucester, England Installs New Defibrillators Around City

 

Three new life-saving automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are being installed around Gloucester city.

The new 24/7 defibrillators and bleed kits will be placed at key locations on the exterior walls of the Eastgate Shopping Center, Eastgate Street, and Gloucester Docks.

This comes after 13-year-old Nicole suffered cardiac arrest while attending a teen club night in the city and was saved by a defibrillator.

Nicole was the guest of honor as three new devices were installed in Gloucester, BBC reported. 

“We all know that a cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time,” said Supt Alistair Barby from Gloucestershire Police.

“The presence of defibrillators in public places can help raise awareness and stimulate people to think about what they would do in an emergency… This work has helped ensure that these important life-saving bits of equipment are at key locations in the city.”

According to CE Safety, there are 12,490 defibrillators around the UK as of June 13, 2022.

“We conducted a similar investigation in 2019. This year’s findings show a surge in registered defibrillators across the UK, but the ranking of cities has altered,” according to its website.

“Birmingham was the city with the most automated external defibrillators (AEDs) outside of London, with 954 registered. This was followed by Belfast (616), Swansea (459), Leeds (418) and Cardiff (415). The places with fewest are Bournemouth (10), Bristol (5), Swindon (5), St David’s (5) and Gloucester (3, excluding the three newly installed).

Analysis of data provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that mortality rates in the UK have risen to their highest point since 2010.

“Data from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities suggests that increased deaths from heart and circulatory diseases have contributed to the excess seen in the third quarter. While heatwaves led to short-term increases in deaths, analysis by the ONS shows that their impact was not the primary cause of excess mortality over the quarter as a whole,” ONS said.

The Actuary reported:

The Continuous Mortality Investigation (CMI), which publishes regular updates on death rates, reveals that mortality in the third quarter of 2022 was 9% higher than in the same quarter of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, and higher than in any third quarter since 2010. This contrasts with the first half of 2022, which had similar mortality rates to 2019.

The third quarter of 2022 saw 12,700 more deaths than expected from all causes in the UK, with COVID-19 mentioned on the death certificate for 7,300 deaths during that period. Around 137,800 more deaths than expected from all causes were recorded in the UK between the start of the pandemic and the end of September 2022.

“Deaths with COVID on the death certificate only account for around 60% of the excess deaths seen during the quarter, so there were more deaths than expected from non-COVID causes,” said CMI mortality projections committee chair Cobus Daneel. “This contrasts with most of the pandemic period, when non-COVID deaths were lower than expected.

 As a result, health experts have requested an immediate investigation into the source of the rising non-Covid excess death.

data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed 1,540 excess deaths in the week ending on June 24. However, only about 10% of those deaths were caused by Covid-19, the Telegraph reported.

Health experts are still looking for answers and have called for an urgent investigation. They believed that the pandemic response, lack of access to healthcare, and even the cost of living crisis might be to blame.

“Before the end of March, deaths in England and Wales were lower than usual this year despite hundreds of people dying from Covid. Yet in the last three months, the situation has reversed, with overall deaths rising even though Covid deaths have been falling,” the news outlet added.