Penny Mordaunt MP supports South Central Ambulance Service with app launch for 'Save a life'

South Central Ambulance Service is launching the mobile app which tells people where the nearest automatic external defibrillator is, should they come across someone suffering cardiac arrest.

It will also guide them through how to carry out effective CPR or chest compressions. The Save a Life app has been developed for Scas by O2 and uses GPS to show a user where their closest AED is.

Although it was built by Scas, every ambulance trust in the country can upload the location of all their AEDs to it. If they chose to, for the first time, it would provide a national register of every AED in the UK.

Professor Charles Deakin, consultant in cardiac anaesthesia and intensive care and assistant medical director for Scas, said: ‘Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of premature death, but with immediate treatment many lives can be saved. ‘Seconds do count so by using the Save a Life App, someone can save many seconds, if not minutes, in using a defibrillator on a patient even before an ambulance arrives.’

Penny Mordaunt MP added "65 people who died last year of a cardiac arrest in the Portsmouth area perhaps could have been saved if a defib or someone with knowledge of CPR was on hand. I am campaigning to massively increase the chances of surviving a heart attack in the Portsmouth area. This new app is a step forward in the campaign and I'd urge people to download it to their smart phones."

To download the app, visit scas.nhs.uk/savealife

Above: The new 'smart phone app' from South Central Ambulance Service.

Penny Mordaunt MP at Lakeside, Portsmouth with South Central Ambulance Service at a training and awareness launch for Penny's joint 'It's not difficult to save a life' campaign with SCAS.