![](https://emergencyservicestimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ESS-Button-resized.png")
16 October is Restart a Heart Day, an annual initiative led by the Resuscitation Council, which aims to increase the number of people surviving out-of-hospital cardiac arrests by helping more people learn CPR.
With survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest remain stubbornly low in the UK, research from the Resuscitation Council shows that fewer than one in 10 people survive without intervention.
Against this background, a new campaign has emerged to persuade new car manufacturers to provide a Automated External Defibrillator (AED or defib) in every vehicle that is sold to the public. Jumpstart is the brainchild of philanthropist Jonathan Harris CBE with the campaign led by Jon McLeod.
Ahead of Restart a Heart Day, the campaign carried out polling using a representative sample of 1,000 adults which showed that more than half saying they would not know where to find their nearest public defibrillator. Two thirds of the sample supported the Jumpstart campaign’s proposals for a defib in every new car with 10 per cent opposing the idea.
It’s a small sample but with more than 40,000 people suffering an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the UK each year and the need for greater awareness of the skills and access to defiibs, the campaign is highlighting a wider issue with survival and availability particularly in more remote locations.
Last year, a group of parliamentarians called on the government to mandate all emergency services to carry defibrillators in their vehicles to improve survival from cardiac arrest.
The Jumpstart campaign is similarly looking to put pressure on MPs, writing to the government ahead of the King’s Speech earlier this year to push for legislation. “Mandating defibrillators in new vehicles would turn the UK’s car fleet into a life-saving public health resource, putting a defibrillator within reach in communities across the country, around the clock. We are asking Ministers to seize this opportunity and include this measure in their legislative programme.”
For more information, visit – the Jumpstart Campaign.
To read similar articles, check out our Products channel.
