Accountancy firm provides community with defibrillators

East Anglian-based accountancy and business advisory firm MHA Larking Gowen is extending its company wellbeing programme to reach beyond the doors of its offices by fitting defibrillators to the outside of all seven of its offices in the region.

The life-saving machines have already been installed at its Norwich, Ipswich and Diss offices and will shortly follow at Fakenham, Holt and Cromer.

Andrew Butcher, acting chair of the MHA Larking Gowen staff forum, who is co-ordinating the installation of the equipment, said the idea to put a defibrillator into the Norwich office had originally come from a member of staff through the firm’s wellbeing suggestion scheme.

“We thought it was an excellent suggestion, so we put it to the board who loved the idea and asked for it to be rolled out on to all our sites’’, said Andrew.

“We then thought, why should our wellbeing programme stop at the doors of the office. If we have something that is available to benefit our staff, visitors and clients why should it not benefit others as well?

“The next step was finding appropriate sites outside our buildings to position the equipment so the public could readily find it and make use of it in an emergency. All our machines except the one at our Ipswich office will have 24-hour access for the public.”

“The nature of the Ipswich site meant that it had to be placed inside the security fence so won’t be accessible at night.”

The firm’s Colchester site already has a defibrillator nearby.

Defibrillators are publicly accessible at a number of community locations within the region. In an emergency you can find the location of your nearest defibrillator by dialling 999. The operator will direct you to the location and give you a code to access the machine.

If you are at the site of a defibrillator people can dial 999 to get an access code. The machines are easy to use and you don’t need training. You will receive clear spoken instructions and a patient will not receive a shock unless they need it.

“The machines are being installed by Cardiac Science Corporation, who have been very helpful throughout the whole process,” said Andrew.

To find the location of your nearest MHA Larking Gowen office, go to www.larking-gowen.co.uk