Lottery money funds project to map and maintain Jersey's defibrillators

Friday, 5 June 2026 09:00

By Amelia Averis

Lottery funding will pay for a 'fix the defibs' project, to map and maintain Jersey's life-saving heart-starting machines.

Jersey Heart Support Group has appointed a Defibrillator Network Coordinator to lead the work.

Mark Harris help ensure public-access defibrillators can be easily located and are working and ready to use in an emergency.

This includes identifying, checking and restoring public-access defibrillators and their cases to a user-ready condition, as well as confirming their locations, ownership and access arrangements where records are incomplete or unknown.

Mark told Channel 103 that, for example, some of the cases can't be opened because they have been corroded by sea air.

With this information, an up-to-date map of defibrillator locations will be created, which will be input into an app.

Mark is also looking for volunteers to carry out regular checks, so devices remain maintained and emergency-ready.

"The problem we have at the moment, the Ambulance Service wont tell you where the nearest defibrillator is, because they don't know if it's working

"There's potentially 300 - 500 of them on the island, but we need to find out where they are and who owns them."

The role is funded by the CI Lottery through the Association of Jersey Charities.

To help cover the cost of replacement parts required to bring defibrillators back into service, including batteries, pads and other consumables, Jersey Heart Support Group has launched a fundraising page.

Defibrillators are designed to be used by members of the public, with clear voice prompts that guide the user step by step, if a person is suffering a cardiac arrest.

Jersey has several hundred defibrillators installed in public and community locations. In January, £3,000 was raised for one on Gorey Pier after a hotel resident suffered a medical emergency on Christmas Eve.

READ: Hotel raises £3k for public defibrillator on Gorey Pier

But, Jersey Heart Support Group says many others currently require attention, such as expired batteries or pads, or have unclear records around ownership and their exact location.

It says that stablishing one central, accessible map and a coordinated approach to maintenance will help ensure devices are easy to locate and ready to use in a cardiac emergency.