Pearl Chemist on Evington Road, Leicester, unveiled the medical device on August 22 and its pharmacy manager Ravi Kareer said it’s “another way of us giving back to the community who have supported us over the years”. 

“We pride ourselves in taking care of the welfare of the local community for over 30 years and hopefully we can further save many more lives with this equipment,” Kareer added. 

Leicester South independent MP Shockat Adam attended the unveiling and said in a Westminster debate last week (September 2) how there is a “wider crisis” in access to defibrillators, which he called a “postcode lottery”. 

Read more: ‘True life savers’: Asda pharmacy saves man’s life with CPR 

He urged that defibrillators “should be readily available everywhere”. 

Adam said: “A quarter of the postcodes in my constituency are not within easy reach of a defibrillator. Every single day, 80 to 90 people die from a cardiac arrest out of hospital.”  

He added that when a defibrillator is used “quickly”, it saves lives but also helps with recovery and “dramatically” reduces the need for long-term care.  

Read more: Pharmacist saves three lives in four weeks

“Early access to a defibrillator therefore saves the NHS and the government significant amounts of money, as well as saving lives,” Adam said. 

The installation has been organised with the Evington Road Neighbourhood Association and East Leicester Police attended the unveiling too. 

The police released a statement that it was “fantastic to see community groups taking ownership on this project that will one day save lives”.  

Read more: ‘Lives saved’ as over 300 pharmacy staff take-home naloxone trained 

It comes as an Asda pharmacy worker “helped saved the life” of a woman having a stroke in-store by using a defibrillator. 

And one Essex community pharmacy crowd funded for a defibrillator after its pharmacist was concerned about what could be done if someone went into cardiac arrest.