Albufeira is a pioneer council in the placement of defibrillators on public roads

Albufeira is the first municipality nationwide to provide defibrillators on public roads, which are accessible to any citizen […]

Albufeira is the first council at national level to provide defibrillators on public roads, which are accessible to any citizen who has training in Basic Life Support and DAE. Last Monday, the Albufeira City Council delivered 71 certificates and cards “Operational DAE – Automatic External Defibrillation” to proximity rescuers, trained under the “Autarquia + Segura” program, who are authorized to use this equipment.

As explained by the municipality, "each rescuer is assigned to one of the 13 AED equipment installed in strategic locations in the municipality and in two vehicles (Municipal Police and Voluntary Firefighters), in order to ensure an immediate response in case of cardiorespiratory arrest."

“I am grateful for the availability of all the volunteers who participated in this training. In all, approximately 170 people have been trained, including Volunteer Firefighters and members of the National Republican Guard. We are interested in creating more training groups, since the more people who know how to use the AEDs, the higher the program's success rate will be and, consequently, more lives will be saved», stressed José Carlos Rolo, president of the Albufeira City Council.

The DAE equipment is in booths specially prepared for this purpose and signposted, next to anchor buildings, such as some municipal structures, and in places with a large influx of people: Rua do Município (in front of the Town Hall), Pavilhão Desportivo de Albufeira/ Municipal Stadium, Municipal Swimming Pools/ Imortal FC training camps/ Quinta da Palmeira, Av. Sá Carneiro (Oura), Avenida da Liberdade (Alves Sousa Pharmacy), Av. do Pau da Bandeira, Parish of Ferreiras (roundabout), Parish of Guia (next to the chapel), Parish of Olhos de Água (former Parish Council), Parish of Paderne (Praça Nova).

“This is an innovative program at national and international level. I have been working in this area for 10 years and there is no system that has booths on the public road with remote opening and GSM activation for first responders like the Municipality of Albufeira. What we see here is something very innovative and pioneering», attested Marco Castro, director of Blue Ocean Medical, a company that installs AEDs.

After the certificate delivery session, which took place in the Municipality's Salão Nobre, an experimental demonstration of the DAE equipment inserted in the cabin installed in front of the City Council building was carried out, with the main objective of testing the interaction of proximity rescuers in the process. .

«The opening of the cabins is carried out remotely through the Albufeira Fire Department, which operates 24 hours a day throughout the year. When a cabin is opened, all emergency responders in the vicinity are immediately contacted by automatic telephone call, in a pioneering system, which allows for quicker start of resuscitation maneuvers, even before the arrival of 112, thus significantly increasing the probability of the victim's survival», explains the City Council of Albufeira.

“In 2017, we responded with our means to around 100 cardiorespiratory arrest events, of which only seven were reversed. These seven situations benefited from the fact that they were assisted by people who immediately started the BLS procedures. Time is life, it makes a difference, and the municipality of Albufeira is to be congratulated for promoting this innovative program», said António Coelho, commander of the Albufeira Fire Department.

For Carlos Raposo, operational manager of INEM's Southern Delegation – Algarve, “this project must be recognized, publicized and implemented in the rest of the region and the country. We all know that the only effective treatment for cardiorespiratory arrest in adults, other than trauma, is defibrillation. And we also know that the earlier and the greater the victim's accessibility to treatment, the better their ability to survive, recovering the conditions they had before the event».

The session also included the intervention of Sergeant-Assistant Ademar Brito, representing the Territorial Commander of the GNR of Albufeira, and the municipal technician from the Health and Safety at Work service, who presented the program. All entities involved in the PDAE – GNR, Firefighters Volunteers and INEM – made themselves available to carry out training in Mass Training and others related to the Program.

“Defibrillators are just a tool, because people who know how to use them are needed. It suggested that all the places in the municipality that have an AED, including private ones, be signposted, so that ordinary citizens can know their location and use it in case of emergency. On the other hand, the program will become all the more robust, the more rescuers there are, that is, training should be given to school students, who will be the future rescuers, and who will also pass some notions on to parents", advised the director of Blue Ocean Medical.

also the mayor of Albufeira City Council, executive councilors, chief of staff and deputy to the president also received training in SBV/DAE. José Carlos Rolo argues that “safety is increasingly a decisive factor in the tourism sector. This program reinforces the feeling of security of those who visit us, who will certainly feel more protected from a possible occurrence of sudden illness. We are now a safer municipality», he guaranteed.

Any resident can be part of the team of first-aiders, having to attend a Basic Life Support and AED course, duly certified by INEM.

See the photos of the delivery of certificates:

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