Kenilworth business makes defibrillator available to the public

The Kenilworth HeartSafe group, launched last year under the umbrella of Warwickshire Hearts, a local registered charity, has been working to make sure there are sufficient number of Automated External Defibrillators (AED) available to be used across the town.

Keith Grierson, with Kenilworth HeartSafe, said: “When Kenilworth HeartSafe started looking into the local situation they found some 30 defibrillators in the town but only three were registered and available for public use.”

The town currently has defibrillators available to the public and registered with the West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) at Abbey Medical Centre, the reception of the Holiday Inn, one outside St Nicholas School. The group recently learned of a fourth at Kenilworth Cricket Club.

The group has started approach owners of unregistered defibrillators to see whether they could be persuaded to make them available for public use.

As a result Simon Kirkpatrick, the managing director of Thomas Hearns a family-owned furniture store in Warwick Road, decided to make the defibrillator at their store available to the public by installing the equipment in a lockable cabinet and registering it with the ambulance service.

Anyone interested in changing their defibrillator from private to public use can contact Mr Grierson at 01926 855616.