What Is an AED and Does Your Workplace Need One?

An AED (automated external defibrillator) is a portable device that analyses a person's heart rhythm during cardiac arrest and delivers a shock if, and only if, one is needed. There is no general legal requirement for a UK workplace to have one: the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 require "adequate and appropriate" provision, and your first aid needs assessment decides whether an AED belongs in yours. For a growing number of London workplaces, the assessment says yes.

What an AED actually does

Cardiac arrest is an electrical problem: the heart stops pumping because its rhythm has failed. CPR keeps blood moving; a defibrillator is what can restart an effective rhythm. Resuscitation Council UK guidance is blunt about the timing, with the chance of survival falling by roughly 10 per cent for every minute that passes without CPR and defibrillation. An ambulance travelling across London traffic cannot always arrive inside that window. A device on the wall 60 seconds away can.

Modern AEDs are designed for untrained bystanders. Open the lid and a voice talks you through pad placement and every step. The device analyses the rhythm itself and will not shock a heart that does not need it.

So does your workplace need one?

The honest answer is "what does your needs assessment say", but these factors push strongly towards yes:

• Headcount and footfall. Large workforces, and any site where customers, pupils or visitors are regularly present.
• Distance from help. Industrial estates, construction sites and any premises where an ambulance response is realistically over a few minutes.
• Higher-risk populations. Gyms and leisure settings, schools, care settings, and workforces with older age profiles.
• Physical work. Warehousing, construction and manufacturing.

A small office above a shop with a public-access AED on the high street may reasonably decide against its own device. A 200-person warehouse in Enfield with the nearest defibrillator ten minutes away is making a different decision.

If you do install one, register it on The Circuit, the national defibrillator network, so the ambulance service can direct callers to it, and name someone to run the simple monthly readiness check (battery and pad expiry).

Where training fits

An AED works without training. A cardiac arrest response does not. Someone has to recognise the arrest, call 999, start compressions within seconds and keep them going while the device is fetched. That confidence is exactly what a practical course builds, and it is why AED use is covered hands-on in both of our on-site courses:

• Emergency First Aid at Work: one day, £550 per session, up to 12 staff
• First Aid at Work: three days, £1,500 per session, up to 12 staff

Both include CPR and AED practice on training devices, at your premises, anywhere in London. If you are still weighing up which course fits, our EFAW vs FAW guide covers the decision in five minutes.

This article is general guidance, not a substitute for training or for your own needs assessment. Request a free quote and we will confirm within 24 hours, with nothing to pay to book.