ILMINSTER NEWS: Defibrillator set to be housed in Market Square phone box

A POTENTIALLY life-saving defibrillator looks set to be housed in a telephone box in Ilminster town centre.

Members of Ilminster Town Council are due to meet on Tuesday (August 15, 2017) where they are likely to approve entering into an agreement with British Telecom to adopt the telephone kiosk at the Market Square.

A community fundraising campaign was launched in early 2016 to buy two public defibrillators to be placed in the town which could be used in the emergency of somebody suffering a cardiac arrest.

The first of the two defibrillators was located late last year at the Archie Gooch Pavilion at Britten’s Field and now it looks as if the second machine will be installed in the telephone box in the Market Square once it has been immobilised for phone use by BT.

It was in April this year when Claire Kingdon, on behalf of the fundraising defibrillator group, spoke to town councillors about the possibility of using the phone box in the centre of Ilminster for a defibrillator machine.

British Telecom had already confirmed it would allow the town council to adopt the traditional bright red kiosk for the princely sum of £1.

Now the project is set to take a step forward on Tuesday when the town council is expected to formally approve entering into an agreement with British Telecom to adopt the kiosk.

Once the legal documentation has been sorted out then BT will start the transfer process and remove the telephone equipment from the kiosk.

The Ilminster Public Defibrillator scheme came about after local nurse Emma Rutter posted a simple question relating to the locations of public defibrillators on social media and was shocked when she discovered there were none.

The response was amazing and despite having such a small fundraising team they managed to purchase two defibrillators in such a short space of time.

A defibrillator can be used in the event of somebody having a heart attack and could literally mean the difference between life and death.

The equipment is housed an eye-catching tamper proof, yellow box.  Crucially, the defibrillator fitted is a speaking-instructional device meaning no medical training is required to use it.

In the event of an emergency, people should call 999 and the emergency call handler will advise of the AED’s location - if the caller is not already aware of it. The call handler will then provide a code to access the equipment from its cabinet at the same time as they dispatch an ambulance. The call handler and the device then talk the user through what to do.

If the phone box at the Market Square goes for people to make calls then the nearest kiosk to the town centre will be at the triangle area at the top of West Street and its junction with High Street.

Twelve months ago Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh was on hand to help in the official unveiling of an emergency community defibrillator in a renovated old phone box in Haselbury Plucknett near Crewkerne.

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