Staff from the Scotmid Co-operative family of businesses came together last night (28 October 2013) at the Scottish Ambulance Service Headquarters in Dundee for a refresher course in operating in-store defibrillators.
Team members from Scotmid Clepington Road, Semichem Wellgate Centre and Semichem Lochee were trained by Stuart Ballantyne and Rupert Wilson from the Scottish Ambulance Service, ensuring that their life saving skills were brought up to date and store teams are ready to deal with the worst kind of first aid emergencies in their stores.
In a unique national partnership between Scotmid and the Scottish Ambulance Service, 35 Community Public Access Defibrillators have been placed in Scotmid Co-operative owned businesses across the country including Scotmid, Semichem and The Fragrance House stores. An additional ten stores will be selected for a further roll out in the coming months.
The chance of survival from a cardiac arrest is much greater when a patient receives early defibrillation, quickly followed up by advance cardiac care from an ambulance team.
Maureen Mauchline, Manager at the Semichem Wellgate Centre store, attended training in defibrillator use and CPR techniques with colleagues last night. Maureen said: “All of our stores provide a service at the heart of local communities across Scotland and Scotmid is committed to making a difference and improving people’s lives and the store staff have got completely behind the defibrillator roll out. Although the defibrillators we have in store are fully automated to allow no room for error, it was great for us to undergo the training for a second time. It made a big difference in consolidating our knowledge and just added to our confidence to deal with potential situations.”
Kenny Freeburn, Head of Community Resilience at the Scottish Ambulance Service, said: “The roll out of this public access defibrillator programme has made a positive contribution to safer and sustainable communities around the country. While we have world class ambulance response times in Scotland, we know that in cardiac cases every second counts and that equipping communities with basic life saving skills and equipment will improve survival rates. We are delighted to support the Scotmid family with their training and it is a pleasure to see how the store teams have embraced this.”