Welcome to our website

Southwell Defibrillator Group is a non profit making group, who were formed in March 2002 and whose aim is to provide a rota of Community Responders able to attend certain potentially life threatening emergencies associated with cardiac arrest / respiratory difficulties in and around Southwell. We work in conjunction with East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) who undertake our initial and ongoing training and who support and assist us throughout.

At present we have raised sufficient funds to purchase the necessary basic training equipment and two defibrillators with associated breathing apparatus.

We have been most fortunate in the major financial suport we have had from local and national bodies click here to see a list.

The first 28 volunteers were trained by EMAS and in March 2003 we went 'live'. Each volunteer decides individually, when and how many hours they can make themselves available each month. This is a number of hours that they could possibly be put on the rota and the rota co-ordinator then allocates those on call, trying to ensure that no-one is over-booked. There are usually two people on call at any one time, each with one complete set of equipment.

The group provides cover with EMAS from 8-00 am to 10-00 pm daily when ever possible, and as community responders we do not attend night time emergencies or trauma incidents.

In June 2003, 10 new volunteers successfully completed training, but in spite of this, our main objective is still to continue to recruit and train volunteers in order to provide the best possible service to our community and to cover 'natural wastage' or loss, of our trained responders.