A portable defibrillator that offers golf clubs a practical solution to position lifesaving equipment around their courses has been installed at a growing number of UK golf club since being launched last year.
The Code Blue CPR Box is designed to provide access to emergency equipment in locations where installing an electrical supply would be difficult or expensive. Weighing 5kg, the cabinet can be mounted on a wall or post using four screw points, without specialist contractors or tools.
Its portability also allows clubs to relocate it as their requirements change, potentially providing cover near halfway houses, practice facilities or other areas away from the clubhouse and other power sources.
Royal Dornoch Golf Club was one of the first clubs to install Code Blue boxes, with the Scottish club installing one in the clubhouse, one at the half-way house, as well in each of its five-strong buggy fleet, as well as in the marshall’s buggy.
Since then, Code Blue CPR Boxes have been rolled out at Rye, Delamere Forest and Addington Palace, with further installations in the pipeline.
Neil Hampton, general manager at Royal Dornoch, is hopeful that more golf clubs will embrace the concept, especially as figures show that only 8% of people who go into a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital survive.
“It’s easy to kick something like this down the road or spend the money elsewhere, but you can’t put a price on someone’s life,” says Hampton. “We’ve put these defences in place now because we would rather be prepared for the worst than reacting to it.”
He added: “Fortunately, the defibrillators fitted onto our buggies have not had to be used in an emergency yet, but members and our many international visitors can take to the courses in the knowledge that should the need arise, this easy to operate kit will be close at hand.”
The box’s innovation centres on CodeBlue MediFoam, a latent heat insulation system that stores warmth during milder weather and releases it during cold spells to help maintain the defibrillator’s operational temperature range. The cabinet’s temperature protection requires no wiring, solar panels, wind turbines or batteries. This applies to the enclosure, rather than the defibrillator housed inside it.
Manufactured in the UK from durable polyurethane, the cabinet comes with an eight-year manufacturer warranty and requires no electrical servicing.
Alongside equipment supply, Code Blue CPR offers practical training to help employees respond confidently to cardiac emergencies. Its corporate courses are intended to prepare staff to protect colleagues and customers, combining access to equipment with the knowledge needed to use it.
Code Blue founder David Sullivan says more than 10 lives have already been saved through its training and advice.
He said: “More than 350 people die on UK golf courses every year and that is unacceptable in this day and age with the technology at our disposal. We lag way behind other countries in cardiac arrest survival rates because we have been reactive rather than proactive. If you can get a defibrillator on a patient within three minutes the chances of survival leap from seven or over 70%.”
“For our latest model we have harnessed aerospace material to keep the defibrillator at an ambient temperature and fully operational anywhere between plus 45° and minus 15° centigrade, so it is ideal for the far reaches of any golf course, outside business premises, in vehicles or even up mountains and in national parks.
“You don’t need an electrician to install them, there’s no electricity bill or maintenance and at just £449 per box for tax deductible life-saving kit, this is a game changer. Just imagine how awful it would be if a defibrillator didn’t work when it was needed?”
For information and tutorials on basic CPR lifesaving and the latest defibrillator options, see codebluecpr.co