Health · 22 July 2026
More than 16 million people live too far from a defibrillator, campaign says
Bob Harvey via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-2.0)
Heart Restart campaign research says 35 million people in England and Wales are not within a three to five minute walk of a defibrillator. The British Heart Foundation has started giving 400 defibrillators to underserved areas, while campaigners want the government to scrap VAT on the devices, pads and batteries. More than 40,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen in the UK each year, and fewer than one in 10 people survive.
Reported by The Guardian · How we write briefs