South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) is supporting Check Your Defib Week by encouraging all defibrillator guardians across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire to regularly check and maintain their devices and ensure they are registered on The Circuit, the national defibrillator network.
Publicly accessible defibrillators can play a crucial role in the chain of survival when somebody suffers a cardiac arrest. When a person’s heart stops beating effectively, every minute without CPR and defibrillation significantly reduces their chances of survival. In the South Central region, a publicly accessible defibrillator is deployed at an emergency more than once a day, every day.
Defibrillators are designed to be used by members of the public and can provide a potentially lifesaving shock before ambulance crews arrive. However, they can only help save lives if they are working correctly, accessible when needed and visible to ambulance service control room teams so they can direct bystanders to them. Simple issues like flat batteries or expired pads can stop a defib from working and making a difference when it matters most.
The Circuit, managed by the British Heart Foundation in partnership with ambulance services across the UK, NHS England St John Ambulance and the Resuscitation Council UK, provides a national database of defibrillators. When a 999 call is received for a suspected cardiac arrest, ambulance service control room staff can direct callers to the nearest available registered defibrillator, helping to ensure the device reaches the patient as quickly as possible.
Across the South Central region, there are currently 8,215 defibrillators registered on The Circuit. During the last year alone (1 June 2025-31 May 2026), publicly accessible defibrillators were deployed at 458 emergency incidents across the region.
SCAS is urging all organisations, businesses, community groups and individuals responsible for a defibrillator to take a few minutes during Check Your Defib Week to:
- Check their defibrillator is in working order
- Ensure pads and batteries are within their expiry dates
- Confirm the device remains accessible and clearly signposted
- Update any changes to the device’s status or location
- Register the defibrillator on The Circuit if it is not already listed
David Hamer, Divisional Community Engagement Manager for Thames Valley at SCAS, said:
“Defibrillators save lives, but only if they are ready to use when an emergency happens. We know that publicly accessible defibrillators are being used hundreds of times each year across our region to help people in cardiac arrest.”
“By carrying out regular checks and ensuring devices are registered with The Circuit, guardians can help make sure that ambulance service control room teams are able to direct members of the public to the nearest available defibrillator when every minute counts.”
People responsible for a defibrillator can check and update their device details by visiting The Circuit website at The Circuit – the national defibrillator network
Find out more about Check Your Defib Week at Check Your Defib Week | Resuscitation Council UK
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Notes to Editors:
- Defibrillators can be used safely by members of the public and provide voice and visual instructions to guide users through the process, so no previous training is necessary.
- Every minute without CPR or defibrillation reduces survival chances by 10% (source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2600120/)
- Early CPR and defibrillation can more than double survival rates (source: Prognosis | Background information | Cardiac arrest – out of hospital care | CKS | NICE )
- Each year there are over 40,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK (source: Epidemiology of cardiac arrest Guidelines | Resuscitation Council UK)
- The survival rate of those suffering an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is around 10%
- It takes less than five minutes to register a defibrillator on The Circuit and there is no cost.
- Once registered, the defibrillator is visible to the ambulance service in 60 seconds.