24-hour defibrillators all fired up and ready to go

TWO 24-hour accessible defibrillators have now been installed in Ennis’ town centre after months of fundraising and planning.

The potentially life saving equipment have been located at the outside of both the O2 shop in the Square and Specsavers Market Place. This follows a campaign by a local committee who plan to install more of the equipment in locations throughout the town.

 

The fundraising has been headed by Ennis Town councillor Paul O’Shea who has been joined by the Irish Red Cross Clare Area, Ennis Chamber and other business and community groups.
Already two more defibrillators have been funded, but according to Councillor O’Shea, chairman of the committee, there are hopes that the campaign can expand even further.

“We have two more that will be installed in the near future, we are currently in negotiations with property owners to see where they will be placed. We are extremely thankful to the people of Clare for their contributions and for making it possible to purchase this life saving equipment. Each unit costs €2,500.

“We have had a lot of support in fundraising from the public and Ennis Chamber have been involved with fundraising from businesses. We are expecting many more of these to go up in the future. In Clonmel there are 15 in the town, in Killarney there are 12. We plan on continuing the fundraising until we have 12 as it is vital that they are within a three minute proximity of an incident in order for them to be effective.”

Along with the fundraising for the defibrillators, the Clare Red Cross have been involved in training members of the public in their use. Special codes are needed to be able to access the public defibrillators and they have been given to those trained in their use. “If there is an emergency somebody with the code puts it in and they are able to access the defibrillator and use it as they have been trained to do. More and more people are coming forward for training. It is invaluable to be trained in this area and I would encourage anybody interested to avail of this opportunity,” said the Ennis town councillor.

The codes have been given to members of Clare Red Cross, Civil Defence personnel, Ennis Town Council’s traffic wardens, the gardai and fire service. Also anybody who has received training can obtain the codes by presenting their certification. Anybody who wishes to be trained in the use of the defibrillator can sign up at www.clareredcross.ie.

Councillor O’Shea added, “The committee is absolutely thrilled to have these defibrillators up and running and we are looking forward to seeing even more being put up on the streets of Ennis. We never imagined that in the space of three or four months we would have come this far and they would be paid for and up on the wall. This equipment is very important and could eventually save somebody’s life.”

He commented that this is a step towards Ennis becoming a ‘Heart Safe Town’, the much coveted award from the Irish Heart Foundation.

The idea for the fundraising campaign first began in February when Councillor O’Shea proposed that Ennis Town Council install a 24/7 defibrillator in the centre of town. He was informed that this is not in the council’s remit.

Following that meeting the councillor and town clerk met with the HSE. At the meeting with the HSE it was decided that Councillor O’ Shea be given a copy of national guidelines for developing Cardiac First Response Programmes. The HSE Resuscitation Training Officer also offered to advice the voluntary group. It was also discussed that a proposal for Ennis to be developed as a Heart Safe Town be submitted to the County Development Board’s Health Implementation Group for further discussion.

Ennis Town Council currently has three defibrillators. One is located in the customer service office of Ennis Town Council, one in Ennis Leisure Complex and one in Lees Road. There is also a defibrillator in Clare County Council’s headquarters.