Cross Flatts Park is now home to an automated external defibrillator (AED) that is accessible to all after local Councillors funded an external cabinet to house it.
For just over three years the AED, bought by the Cross Flatts parkrun, has lived inside the kitchen at the Watsonian Pavilion in the Park.
It has been a fantastic asset to the Park and both local residents and Councillors were extremely grateful to the parkrun for funding it. However, its location meant that it wasn’t accessible 24 hours as day as the Pavilion isn’t open all of the time.
At the last Inner South Community Committee meeting it was agreed that Councillors from Beeston and Holbeck and Hunslet and Riverside would jointly fund the external cabinet to ensure that the defibrillator is always accessible should anyone need it.
It is now located in front of the Pavilion, next to the café door ready to be used should the occasion arise.
Councillor Angela Gabriel (Chair of the Inner South Community Committee) said:
“It was incredibly generous of the Cross Flatts parkrun to buy the AED and my colleagues Andrew Scopes, Gohar Almass, Elizabeth Nash, Paul Wray and Mohammed Iqbal and I were delighted to be able to help further by funding the external cabinet.
“Publically accessible defibrillators really can mean the difference between life and death and so I am very pleased that anyone who is unfortunate enough to need one in Cross Flatts Park will now be able to be given the assistance they need.”
Mark Hodgkinson (Cross Flatts parkrun Event Director) said:
“Cross Flatts parkrun and Junior parkrun are delighted that our event defibrillator is being made available for use outside of our event times. We hope that the defibrillator will never need to be used but very pleased that, if a defibrillator is needed by someone in Cross Flatts Park, one is now accessible.”
Using a Public Access Defibrillator is very straightforward, they have audio instructions and will not let you cause harm to the patient. To access the defibrillator call 999 and they will tell you the access code to unlock the cabinet. Watch this British Heart Foundation video for more information:
This post is based on a press release issued by Cllr Angela Gabriel
