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OVER 600 AUTOMATED external defibrillators (AEDs) by four different manufacturers require urgent updates in Ireland, the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) has warned ahead of the forecasted cold weather.
Owners of AEDs are being urged to check that the recommended safety and maintenance updates on their device have been undertaken.
Irish sporting venues, schools, hotels, restaurants, offices, shopping centres and all individuals who are in possession of an AED are advised to urgently check if their device is one of the following models:
If someone has an affected AED, the HPRA is calling on the owner to contact the manufacturer or the HPRA to ensure it receives all necessary updates.
An estimated 614 AEDs by four different manufacturers require urgent updates in Ireland to ensure they work correctly in an emergency situation. Without these updates, the devices may not work as intended.
As part of the ongoing maintenance of an AED, it important to consider if or when it will need to be replaced as AEDs, like most pieces of equipment, will have an expected lifespan.
At the time of purchase, the manufacturer should be able to provide this information along with details of the warranty period which will help ensure that the AED is kept up to date. Safety-related updates to AEDs are normally offered by manufacturers independent of whether the AED is still under warranty.
“We would urge those in possession of a device which needs to be updated to contact the manufacturer or the HPRA to organise the necessary updates as soon as possible,” Anne Tobin, medical devices vigilance manager of the HPRA said.
This action could be the difference between life and death for whomever next requires treatment with the AED.
“These devices offer an important first response intervention and we know that the majority of cardiac arrests occur outside of the healthcare environment,” Tobin said.
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I once worked for a company involved with one of these devices. The ‘update’ can mean as little as requiring somebody to read a letter stating there is a minuscule chance of the device needing a service and these devices will warn you when they do anyway.
One device once needed a full recall so that a sticker could be put on the packaging to tell people not to leave it out if temperatures are below freezing.
My point being, though the HPRA advice makes it sound dangerous and scary, 99.9% of the time its really not. It’s a box ticking exercise because something went wrong in one machine out of hundreds of thousands.
@Ailbhe: While you may be correct in what you say, in a hospital setting this would mean contacting the person responsible for AED’s who would make the decision to pass this onto the relevant Department for further action, if necessary. In today’s litigious society it would be acted upon.
However if the AED is in a Shopping Centre, a sports club or meeting hall there may be some confusion over who exactly is responsible for it, perhaps it was donated. Someone may test it occasionally but have no competence beyond that, they may be unaware of HPRA alerts or of who to contact.
These are lifesaving medical devices, we place our trust in them but when it comes to the maintenance of them and ensuring they’re fit for purpose it appears to be chaotic. The HPRA issue alerts but there doesn’t seem to be any single body assigned to check they’re being correctly maintained or removed if they can’t be fixed. The onus is placed on the owners of the AED’s to ensure they’re in good working order.
I’m sure there are many facilities up and down the country who take the maintenance of their AED very seriously, however as the HPRA can only estimate how many there are, I’m also certain there are some out there that are forgotten. Maybe there should be someone responsible for maintaining them nationally.
@Arch Angel: I’ve said nothing that contradicts what you’ve said and you’ve said nothing that contradicts what I’ve said. Maybe your point should be a standalone one, rather than one that pretends to correct me on something I didn’t say.
@Ailbhe: Forgive me, I wasn’t trying to correct or contradict you on anything. In reality I suppose I took a long time to say that if an alert regarding AED’s were issued 6 months ago we can be reasonably sure that, in a hospital environment, this will be acted upon.
We may not have the same level of confidence for an AED in the local bingo hall, yet both are life saving medical devices.
Should the one in the hospital fail due to that alert not being implemented, that may result in a substantial compensation payment from the HSE, but would the local bingo hall be capable of paying such high compensation?
@Arch Angel: A failure of a device would be the manufacturers fault if corrective action is not taken or all reasonable efforts have been made to notify and the owners that corrective action is required.
This didn’t come as a shock.
Can somebody whos smarter than me create an app that shows all the locations of defibrillators around the country?
@Joe Ryan: Save a selfie, you take a picture and geo tag fire hydrant and aed locations.
@Joe Ryan: Already done – there is an volunteer made app on android that shows all this information for ireland – complete with photos and owners contact details.
@Anthony Clark: Do you know the name of the app? Would be handy to have especially out in the schticks
I blame Brexit.
How often are these things used ?
600 of them you would want a lot of energy to fix all them .
have your say