IT’S a vital lifesaving piece of equipment and available to the whole community.

A defibrillator has been installed on the wall of the Crown Inn pub at King’s Somborne to help cardiac arrest victims in the community.

The village’s Community Responders team which is made up of volunteers have access to the equipment, along with members of the public in an emergency.

Former community responder John Vanderpump cut a ribbon on Saturday afternoon to officially launch the installation of the defibrillator.

Funding for the device came from King’s Somborne Parish Council, South Central Ambulance Service, King’s Somborne Community Responders, the British Heart Foundation and donations made to the project during quiz nights at the Crown Inn.

Publican Judith Evans who is a Community First Responder herself said the defibrillator was good news for the village but pointed out more volunteers were needed to join the Community First Responders.

“Unfortunately over the last few months the Community Responder team has reduced in numbers and it is now virtually impossible to give 24/7 coverage which makes the knowledge of how this defibrillator functions vitally important as, should anyone suffer a cardiac arrest their chances of survival are generally increased if shock treatment is administered by the defibrillator can be given within eight minutes of the arrest,” said Judith, who pointed out that people must call the emergency services to obtain a special code to access the defibrillator’s storage box before it can be used.

Two Romsey-based dental practices have also installed defibrillators for public use at their premises as part of NHS England project to get the life-saving equipment into the community. These are at Beauchamp House and Heatherstone House dental surgeries both in the town’s Hundred.