[Talk-GB] Defibrillator Mapping

[Robert Whittaker (OSM lists)]

It was suggested that trying to increase our mapping of public
Defibrillators would be a good think. After a bit of digging, it seems
that Ambulance Services typically maintain a list of locations, with a
view to informing people about them if a 999 call comes in nearby
where one might be useful.

The different services seem to take quite different views on these
lists. My local service (East of England) actively publicise their
list (http://www.eastamb.nhs.uk/Get-involved/Community-Public-Access-Defibrillators.htm)
on the grounds that raising awareness of the locations will make it
more likely that someone will know about and find a defibrillator in
an emergency. Other services have refused FOI requests on the (IMO
spurious) grounds that publicising the list will make thefts /
vandalism more likely, and out of date information may lead to people
wasting time in an emergency.

Anyway, I've taken the East of England list from
http://www.eastamb.nhs.uk/Get%20involved/CPADs/CPAD%20List.pdf , and
done a comparison with the OSM data. A rough and ready tool can be
found at http://robert.mathmos.net/osm/defib/progress/ for any other
locals who want to use it. We've got a small number of locations they
haven't, and some of their postcodes may not be quite right. But there
are a lot on their list that aren't mapped yet!

Regarding tagging, it seems that a lot of the cabinets have a
reference number on the outside, so I'd suggest recording that in the
ref=* tag. Also, I think a description of the location would be useful
(e.g. "Outside wall of McDonalds, facing Store 21") to help people
find the defibrillator when they need it. I've been putting something
like that in a location=* key.

In terms of getting more data, I've put in FOI requests to the East
and West Midlands Ambulance Services for starters, so we'll see what
line they take...

Best wishes,

Robert.

-- 
Robert Whittaker