Concern over damage to defibrillators in Berkshire village

Broken or out of order public defibrillators installed in a Berkshire village could cause dangerous delays in a medical emergency, a councillor has warned.

Councillor Sally Coneron became concerned about the defibrillators in Sunninghill after checking they were in working order ahead of a wheelbarrow race set to take place on bank holiday Monday.

She said that only one of the public defibrillators – at Ascot Day Centre – was working for sure.

Staff at a Tesco were unsure whether one attached to their shop was working, and there was no sign that one attached to a Londis on Sunninghill High Street was activated.

She said: “That’s in the middle of the high street and it’s the most visible one – that’s the one most people would run to.

“It’s really serious if these things aren’t working – it actually makes it more dangerous.”

She added that an incident at The Carpenters Arms in Sunninghill illustrated the risk.

She said: “A couple of years ago a person had a heart attack – someone went to find a defib, and they brought it back and it was out of battery, and that person passed away.”

Public defibrillators are not provided by the NHS but voluntarily by organisations such as charities, businesses or community groups.

The defibrillator attached to the Londis on Sunninghill High Street was provided by the Community Heartbeat Trust charity.

However the trust says it relies on organisations or people in the community to submit regular reports on whether the equipment works.

A spokesperson said it had twice deactivated the defibrillator after no one took responsibility for submitting reports.

They said: “This site was installed in 2015, we approached the old shop keeper who refused to report on the equipment, and we had trouble identifying a responsible person to assist with this locally from council or shop.

“We then took a view due to concerns to de-activate it with the local ambulance service in 2019 due to lack of reporting.”

The spokesperson added that the incident at the Carpenters Arms led to ‘refreshed interest locally’ and the defibrillator was reactivated.

But the spokesperson said Community Heartbeat Trust deactivated the defibrillator again in November 2023 as no one had reported its status for more than a year.

The spokesperson said the trust would be ‘delighted to give guidance and support’ to anyone who wanted to get it working again.

They did not answer further questions about why the defibrillator was left in place after being deactivated.

Councillor Coneron said she would look into getting it working again – but questioned why it had been left.

She said: “It should be moved if it’s not going to be activated – it’s dangerous.

“Now I feel like I really need to do something about it – either they need to remove it or someone needs to take it on.”