SOUTH Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) has launched an app that is capable of telling anyone in the UK where their nearest automatic external defibrillator is should they come across someone in cardiac arrest.

It will also guide them through how to carry out effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

The Save a Life App, which is iOS and Android compatible and free to download, has been developed for SCAS by its partner, O2, and uses GPS functionality to show a user where their closest defibrillator is wherever they are in Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire or Oxfordshire.

As well as storing the details of approximately 2,300 defibrillators within the South Central region, the app also contains videos which demonstrate how to carry out CPR on adults, children and infants, along with a section that dispels the most commonly held misconceptions about the risks of attempting CPR.

Professor Charles Deakin, 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 really 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. This gives the person having the cardiac arrest a greater chance of survival.”