Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) in property - a call to action

The scale of the problem

Cardiac arrests are a leading cause of death in the UK, with more than 30,000 people suffering an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest each year, yet survival rates remain alarmingly low at under one in ten*.

Evidence shows that Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) can dramatically increase survival when used within the first 3 to 5 minutes, but access remains patchy and unreliable, particularly in residential and rural areas. While public access defibrillators are increasingly installed in large offices, public settings such as venues, train stations and shopping centres, they are rarely located close to where most cardiac arrests actually occur – in the home and in everyday settings.

There are also stark disparities in provision, with 45% of the most affluent areas having at least one AED nearby compared with only 27% of the most deprived. This postcode lottery costs lives and demonstrates the urgent need to improve access, visibility and reliability of these life saving devices.

Survival depends on speed, yet in many cases it is not a lack of goodwill or absence of equipment that costs lives, but delays in getting to an available device quickly or challenges in accessing one at all. An investigation by the Observer and BBC Radio 4’s The Naked Week found that many public AEDs are not consistently checked, serviced, or registered so that emergency services can locate them quickly and direct the public to them. Some are stored where they can not be accessed around the clock; others have expired pads or dead batteries.

The result is that a device intended to save a life can, in a crisis, become unusable. This is not only distressing for those involved, it undermines public confidence in a system that relies heavily on voluntary management and uneven levels of accountability.

A systematic solution: the JumpStart campaign

This gap in consistency is what JumpStart, the campaign established by former RICS President Jonathan Harris CBE to mandate the inclusion of AEDs in all new motor vehicles, is seeking to address. The ubiquity of vehicles means that AEDs would in future travel with the public, like a First Aid kit, rather than remaining locked in static locations, potentially transforming access in residential areas, where most cardiac arrests occur.

Also, instead of continuing with an approach that expands the number of devices without ensuring they are regularly maintained, JumpStart proposes a more systematic solution: integrating AED checks into the existing MOT framework of vehicle safety and inspection.

This would create a national, regulated system for ensuring AEDs are regularly serviced and kept in working order, should they ever be needed in an emergency.

The role of property managers and RICS members

While the JumpStart campaign remains ongoing, the residential property sector too has a role to play. RICS members and managing agents already maintain estates, residential developments and mixed-use sites where large numbers of people live and work. By ensuring AEDs on the properties they oversee are properly located, visible, secure, registered, and regularly checked, they can increase the likelihood that an AED will work when someone needs it.

Managing agents are well placed to do what many individual property owners can not: put structured processes around AED oversight. Weekly or monthly checks, inclusion in maintenance logs, monitoring of battery life and pad expiry, ensuring secure cabinets are accessible 24/7, and registering devices on systems such as The Circuit (the national defibrillator network in the UK) all contribute to closing the accountability gap. Simple, practical measures, such as signage, security, visibility and clear instructions, can also materially speed up access at the moment it matters most.

A call to action

AED oversight can and should be treated in the same way as active fire safety equipment: a critical resource that must not only be installed, but consistently maintained and ready for use. By ensuring that AEDs located within the built environment are fully operational, accessible and visible, RICS members can help turn availability into real emergency readiness, helping save lives when every second counts.

*For more information on AEDs, contact the British Heart Foundation.

Supporters

• Lorraine Baldry OBE 
• Lord Bichard of Nailsworth, KCB
• Jonathan Caplan KC
• Lord Carrington of Fulham
• Graham Chase
• Professor Barry Gilbertson
• Professor Sir Malcolm Grant, CBE
• Gillian Guy DBE 
• The Hon. Mrs Justice Hogg DBE 
• The Baroness Hooper, CMG
• Sir Christopher Howes KCVO CB 
• Lt. Gen Sir Alistair Irwin KCB CBE 
• The Rt Hon. The Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury 
• Professor Sir Denis Pereira Gray, Kt OBE 
• Peter Pereira Gray 
• Robert Peto
• John Plender
• Simon Pott
• Vicky Pryce