Benidorm creates a map with more than 60 cardio-protected buildings to facilitate a rapid response in the event of an emergency

Benidorm City Council is preparing a map with the more than 60 cardio-protected public and private buildings in the city to facilitate a rapid response in an emergency. The Councilor for Health, Ana Pellicer, has indicated that this initiative, which can be consulted quickly digitally, will allow “to publicize all the places that have a mobile semi-automatic defibrillator that can be used to assist a person who has suffered a cardio failure in the shortest possible time and while the health services arrive", an action that the councillor has described as "very simple, but which at the same time can help save many lives."

Ana Pellicer has pointed out that since 2015, within the measures promoted by the City Council in terms of health promotion and protection of citizens, “many municipal facilities and other spaces have been equipped with AED devices where we thought it was interesting and "It is useful to have these devices." More specifically, Benidorm currently has twelve public buildings equipped with mobile defibrillators and those in some Local Police vehicles.

"But, fortunately, our city has other cardio-protected spaces beyond the municipal ones, since there are many private establishments and resources that have incorporated these devices into their facilities and they are the ones that we now want to include on a map to make them within reach. of security, emergency services and citizens in general,” said Pellicer. Furthermore, she highlighted: “Having this information quickly and clearly can be as valuable as being able to save a life or not.”

To include in this map the greatest number of defibrillators possible, the person in charge of Health has indicated that the City Council has requested the collaboration of the different business associations of Benidorm, so that hotels, shops, bars, restaurants, banks or offices, etc., who have one of these AED devices, please communicate it by email to sanidad@benidorm.org to be included in this digital resource. “We have already begun to receive a response from some of them and incorporated this information to create this digital map, which will be updated as new points arrive,” according to Pellicer.

“Our intention is for this map to be as broad, operational and effective as possible and for us to be able to collaborate to continue saving lives,” the councillor added.

Location of AEDs and training to use them

Ana Pellicer recalled that the mobile defibrillators that the City Council currently has are located in the following offices: City Hall (Local Police checkpoint and entrance hall); entrance hall to the Palau d’Esports l’Illa de Benidorm; offices of the Guillermo Amor Sports City; changing rooms at the Antonio López soccer fields; Municipal market; lobby of the Local Police headquarters; La Torreta Social Center; José Llorca Linares Social Center; Tanit Social Center; Cultural center; and Permanent Adult School, the last one that has been incorporated.

In addition, there are those installed in the new vehicles acquired for the Local Police and in public schools, gyms, hotels, campsites and other private spaces. They have “ the ultimate objective of guaranteeing the best and faster care in cases of heart failure, both in these facilities and nearby,” according to Pellicer.

Finally, the councillor has stated that, although these are devices that are very intuitive to use, the Department of Health is going to provide new training courses on their use to municipal staff to complement the rest of the actions.