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Defibrillator brings village phone box back to life

Tuesday 8 November, 2011

By Anthony Hill

Villagers in a remote part of Scotland have found a novel purpose for a redundant red telephone box - with the potential to help save lives.

Life-saving medical equipment has been fitted to a disused phone box in the Argyll village of Glendaruel, to treat cardiac arrest victims in an emergency.

The traditional fixed-line kiosk, an icon of British design for decades, now features a defibrillator machine which gives the user step-by-step instructions on how to perform resuscitation.

Funded by telecoms giant BT, as part of its Adopt a Kiosk scheme, the equipment first analyses the victim to determine whether defibrillation is required. If necessary, it administers a powerful electric charge with the aim of restoring a normal heartbeat.

Mark Johnson, a BT spokesman, said: “Over the years many people have said that their local phone box was a lifeline. Now that everyone has a phone at home or a mobile that's no longer true.

“But kiosks fitted with defibrillator machines are genuine assets to their community and could be real lifesavers in the future.”

To prevent misuse, the machine is locked in a steel cabinet and can be accessed with instructions from the Scottish Ambulance Service when a 999 call is made.

Glendaruel’s emergency lifeline is the first phone box of its kind in Scotland. It is one of just five payphones across the UK to have been adapted with life-saving equipment.

As well as housing defibrillators, telephone boxes nationwide have been transformed into art galleries, public libraries and mini tourist information centres.

In 2002, more than 92,000 public phones were in use throughout Britain, but BT has since been forced to trim this figure to just over 51,000 - as usage declines year upon year.

According to the firm, the number of calls made from payphones has fallen by 80% in the past five years, with two-thirds of kiosks now costing more money to maintain than they actually bring in.

Image by Brian M Forbes