BYSTANDERS who witness someone going into cardiac arrest could soon become lifesavers thanks to a plan to map all public defibrillators, which is to be piloted in Scotland.

Information about the availability of defibrillators - which give a high energy electric shock to the heart - is patchy and not all are known to ambulance services.

When a member of the public calls 999 after finding someone whose heart has stopped, they might not be directed to where they can find a publicly available defibrillator due to a lack of information on the whereabouts of the devices.

Meanwhile, every minute without CPR or defibrillation reduces a person's chance of surviving a cardiac arrest by around 10%. Glasgow has the highest rate of cardiac arrests in the UK.

Read more: Glasgow to become first UK city to train all pupils in CPR

To combat the challenge, the NHS, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Microsoft have vowed to map all of the UK's public defibrillators.

Figures show the life-saving equipment is used in less than 3 per cent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.

When the network is launched, defibrillator owners, or ‘guardians’, will be invited to register their defibrillator online.

The network will be piloted by the Scottish Ambulance Service and West Midlands Ambulance Service, before being rolled out across the UK.

The Scottish Ambulance Service deals with more than 3,500 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests every year in Scotland, but only around one in 12 people survive. 

In countries where the public are better equipped to recognise and deal with cardiac arrests, survival rates are up to three times higher.

Read more: Survival rates tripled in Denmark after pupils were taught CPR

The Evening Times is campaigning to persuade every Scottish local authority to roll-out CPR training to all secondary school pupils, following Glasgow City Council's lead.

James Cant, Director of BHF Scotland, said: “Thousands more lives could be saved if the public were equipped with vital CPR skills, and had access to a defibrillator in the majority of cases.

“Over the last five years we’ve made great progress in introducing CPR training in more schools.

"We now need to improve access to the tens of thousands of public defibrillators across the UK. These life-saving devices can provide a vital lifeline for cardiac arrest victims until ambulance services arrive. T

Pauline Howie, Chief Executive of Scottish Ambulance Service, said:“The role of the public in a cardiac arrest scenario should not be underestimated.

"Ambulance services aim to get to cardiac arrests, the ultimate medical emergency, as quickly as possible. But every minute counts, meaning CPR and public access defibrillators provide a lifeline for victims.”  

The system will encompass detailed locations of defibrillators across the UK, which will allow Ambulance Services to direct bystanders of a cardiac arrest to the nearest one.