Managed work space hosts borough’s newest defibrillator

Trudie Unsworth, Councillor Sameena Zaheer and Carl Forman

A managed work space has become the latest venue in the borough to host a life-saving defibrillator.

Globe House, on Moss Bridge Road, Rochdale installed a new community access defibrillator on the wall outside the main entrance - it is accessible to the public between 3am and 7pm, Monday to Saturday.

In the event that someone witnesses a cardiac arrest in the area and calls 999, ambulance service operators will direct callers to the defibrillator, give them the code to unlock the cabinet, and use the defibrillator on the person, before an ambulance arrives, tripling their chances of survival.

Globe House is home to 60 tenants, from small businesses to national companies and charitable organisations, who rent its office space and facilities to run their day-to-day operations.

The defibrillator will provide peace of mind for the tenants and external clients who visit the building as well as the 17 other companies based at Globe Park Industrial Park and residents living nearby.

Trudie Unsworth, the building manager at Globe House, said: “We are delighted to have a defibrillator on site for our colleagues, tenants and neighbours on the industrial park, along with the local community and numerous visitors we receive every day.

"We hope that we never encounter such an unfortunate event that we need to use it, but having the potential to save a life is fantastic.”

Training in basic CPR and defibrillation will also be offered to Globe House tenants so they can be confident in helping someone who has suffered a cardiac arrest before an ambulance arrives. Delivering a shock within the first three minutes can increase a person’s chances of survival from 6% to over 74%.

Councillor Sameena Zaheer, assistant to the cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “I am so pleased to see yet another ‘Roch Defib’ installed in our borough.

"Currently people living in the UK only have an 8.6% chance of surviving an out of hospital cardiac arrest. This just is not good enough, so we’re doing all we can to increase the chances of survival for people living, working and visiting our borough.

“By installing defibrillators across the borough and training people how to use them we hope that, should you ever need it, you can get the life-saving treatment you need in those vital first minutes.”