Red phone boxes transformed into life savers

 

BT is funding the installation of defibrillator equipment, which can help save the lives of cardiac arrest victims, into five decommissioned red phone boxes adopted by rural communities. BT is working with the Community Heartbeat Trust (CHT), a charity that provides defibrillation equipment to local communities.

The first kiosk to be fitted with the defibrillation equipment funded by BT is in Lower Slaughter, Gloucestershire. It is the 1,500th red phone box adopted by a local community in the UK. BT introduced its Adopt a Kiosk scheme in 2008, which allows a community to retain their local red BT phone box, with the payphone taken out, by buying the kiosk from the company for just £1.

Available to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the defibrillation equipment is secured in the kiosk in a high visibility yellow, vandal-resistant, heated steel cabinet, which can be opened with a combination code available from the emergency services by calling 999.

The defibrillator machine talks the user through how to administer the treatment, analyzing the casualty to determine if they are suffering from a cardiac arrest, and delivering a powerful but controlled electric shock when it diagnoses a cardiac arrest sufferer needs one to restore normal heartbeat.

Up to 200,000 people a year in the UK suffer from a sudden cardiac attack making it one of the UK’s largest killers. The availability of a defibrillator machine greatly increases the chances of survival. With CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) alone, the survival rate is around five per cent, but defibrillation and CPR increases the chance of survival to up to 50 per cent.

The Adopt a Kiosk scheme has captured the imagination of people up and down the country. Apart from the defibrillator kiosks, boxes have been turned into art galleries, public libraries, exhibitions and information centres. Even the villagers of Ambridge in BBC Radio 4’s long-running drama The Archers have adopted their kiosk.

 

 

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Community Heartbeat Trust 

A national charity focused on provision of life saving defibrillation services to local communities