Lifesaving defibrillators installed at Alfreton House
Leisure Centre gifts equipment to Town Council.
The Town Council was approached at the end of 2016 as potential recipients of a defibrillator from fund raising at Alfreton Leisure Centre. The equipment, which is there for anyone to use on someone in cardiac arrest, has been installed in the grounds of Alfreton House, and is easily identifiable by the bright yellow box.
Fitting a defibrillator and housing unit costs around £1,500, the installation costs have been met by the Town Council and ongoing maintenance and checks of the unit will be the responsibility of the Town Council. Shown with the Town Mayor, Councillor John Walker are Michael Conway who a made significant personal contribution to its purchase, due to having first-hand experience of requiring a defibrillator whilst having a cardiac arrest at Alfreton Leisure Centre and Manager Peter Sharkey. Hector the Hound is the Leisure Centre’s mascot and he stole the opportunity to grab the attention of children, so they too become aware of what a defibrillator is and how it can be used to save lives.
Town Mayor, Councillor John Walker said ‘The Council welcome the gift from the Leisure Centre and were happy to support their suggestion of installing the defibrillator at the opposite end of Town to them. This is a vital piece of equipment which, you would hope is never required but when needed has the proven potential of saving lives. It will benefit the residents and visitors to Alfreton’.
In an emergency, people phone 999 and the ambulance service will give them the access code to open the box housing the defibrillator.
An ambulance is then dispatched and the operator provides guidance on what to do. This is all clearly explained on the front of the box.
The staff and members of Alfreton Town Council have a training session in early July on the correct use of the equipment and maintenance checks.
Access Denied at Alfreton Station
Alfreton Town Council has reacted angrily to the news that the disability works at the Towns station to make platform two accessible to all users has seemingly been pulled just eighteen months after the scheme was given the green light.The scheme had also been fully surveyed, designed and costed, and presented to the public last autumn. The Town Council are seeking formal confirmation, but understand the scheme has been pulled by the Department for Transport. Cllr Scott Walker, Leader of the Council said ‘the public needs to be aware that it is the Government who have stopped the scheme and the reality of the situation is that it could be more than seven years before the scheme comes around. It is unacceptable that the scheme has been stopped again and that the bad news has been sneaked out when cynically before the last General Election the news of the scheme approval was broadcast from the rooftops’ The Town Council has also had train operating companies contacting them unsure of the situation as they have not been told by the Government department.
The Town Council has vowed to keep up its 20 year fight, and is working with a number of bodies to highlight the plight of disabled passengers and bring about a discrimination claim. Town Mayor Mary Kerry added ‘the situation beggars belief with unprecedented investment in the rail industry, when fares keep rising faster than inflation and HS2 is going to connect with a route that some people can’t even access. The scheme is all designed and it is no defence that the cost of the scheme make it reasonable for the discrimination to take place when the vast budgets of Network Rail are considered’. The Town Council also understands that a taxi service is available for disabled customer’s, but needs to be booked in advance. The Council has asked that the service be advertised, but the train operating companies are not prepared to change the signage at the station advising customers to take a one hour detour. The Town Council encourages rail users to ask about and use this service.
Trent Buses Failed Promise To Residents
Alfreton Town Council has raised concerns for public safety with the news that local bus operator Trent Barton is to press ahead with the introduction of larger buses on the nines route only months after assuring local residents that it would not run larger busses down Alma and Grange Streets in the town. The promise came at a public meeting organised by the Town Council and attended by over 100 residents after much concern that the roads along the new route were extremely narrow and congested and pass three schools, three nurseries and a Surestart centre.
Town Mayor Cllr Mary Kerry said “not only is it regrettable that busses continue to run down narrow residential streets filled daily with young children, but to find out that Trent Barton are reneging on their promise to local residents a little over eighteen months since the public meeting is totally unacceptable “. The Town Council has called upon Trent Barton to rethink its plans and keep its promise and run their larger busses via the High Street to protect local residents and school children.
EMAS has put out more ambulance resource than ever before. However, the combination of significant patient demand, pressure within local hospitals, and flooding across the East Midlands, have led to this level of escalation.
Declaring a critical incident includes a formal ask of partner services to take immediate action to help mitigate the risk for people in our communities, including:
Rapid release of ambulances from hospital departments. We appreciate this will be challenging for hospital colleagues however, we need to ensure we have emergency ambulances available to respond to people waiting in the community where life is at threat.
From the morning, local NHS Clinical Hubs to take Category 3 calls (see additional notes) from EMAS and provide support and/or a local alternative NHS pathway for these patient. This allows EMAS to focus on responding to Category 1 (life-threatening) and Category 2 (serious) calls.
All Category 3 calls (see additional information below) from NHS 111 receive a clinical validation from DHU Healthcare (the provider of 111 services) before it is sent for an ambulance.
Like many across the NHS, EMAS colleagues have been working tirelessly to respond to patient need. All internal actions and options to mitigate risk have been exhausted; therefore, a critical incident has been called to ensure mutual aid to support delivery of emergency and urgent patient care.
The public is asked to help by using NHS services wisely and by taking regular medication to manage long-term conditions. If your illness or injury is not immediately life-threatening, please seek alternative care via a pharmacy, urgent treatment centre, or general practitioner (including out of hours services) – visit the NHS website for services near you: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/services-near-you/
Given the additional weather-related pressures being responded to by emergency services across the East Midlands, please act responsibly and do not take unnecessary risks.
Additional information:
Given the severity of the concern, senior leaders will continue to respond to the challenges faced and to ensure support for staff and volunteers at work. Therefore, media interviews will not be conducted tonight. Media requests should be sent via communications@emas.nhs.uk and will be responded to tomorrow.
This is the first time that East Midlands Ambulance Service has declared a Critical Incident.
In response to pressures in the NHS system and on ambulance services, on Tuesday 26 November 2024, EMAS escalated to Resource Escalation Action Plan (REAP) Level 4 – the highest level which indicates a potential for failures within the service. The service has remained at REAP Level 4 since then.
The Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response framework describes a critical incident as: ‘any localised incident where the level of disruption results in the organisation temporarily or permanently losing its ability to deliver critical services, patients may have been harmed or the environment is not safe requiring special measures and support from other agencies, to restore normal functions.
NHS England Ambulance Response Programme states Category 3 calls are for urgent calls such as abdominal pains, and which will include patients to be treated in their own home. The aim is to respond to these patients at least nine out of 10 times within 120 minutes.