Over one hundred (112) MPs and Peers have signed an open letter urging the Prime Minister to ditch the tax on defibrillators ahead of the Autumn Statement in a bid to widen access and save lives.
19-year-old footballer and coaching student Jack Hurley is fronting the campaign to remove the VAT on devices, given that the 20% added tax makes defibrillators unaffordable for community groups and grassroots football clubs. Jack suffered a cardiac arrest in June during a football match and his life was saved by a defibrillator, used just six minutes after he collapsed.
The campaign is led by the British Healthcare Trades Association and MP signatories include former ministers Dame Priti Patel, Dame Caroline Dinenage, and George Eustice.
A person in the UK has just an 8% chance of surviving an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, while early defibrillation can increase survival rates to as high as 70% if defibrillation is given within three to five minutes of a cardiac arrest. After five minutes, survival rates fall by 10% for every minute of delay.
At £800-£2,500 per unit, defibrillators are unaffordable for many small businesses, community groups, and grassroots sports clubs. Currently, only defibrillators purchased by or donated to specific charities, local authorities and the NHS are exempt from the VAT, meaning that removing the tax could reduce the cost per unit by as much as £500 for all other organisations. This would ensure that for every five defibrillators, a community could have six.
The Irish Government removed the VAT on defibrillators in January and supporters of the Heart Restart Tax campaign are calling for the UK Government to follow.
David Stockdale, Chief Executive of the British Healthcare Trades Association, says:
“Ditching the defibrillator tax is a simple action the Government could take to address the shockingly poor survival rates from cardiac arrests occurring outside of hospitals in the UK. Our members specialised in defibrillator manufacturing play a key role in improving the availability of lifesaving devices, yet more must be done to make these vital lifelines accessible to the small businesses and organisations that cannot afford them.”
Jack Hurley, coaching student and cardiac arrest survivor, says:
“I don’t remember much about what happened to me – only I know that an opposition player recognised what was happening and my teammates helped to use a defibrillator to restart my heart. I was very lucky that my coach had installed a defibrillator in the club house.
The VAT added to defibrillators is sometimes between £200-£500 extra per device. But defibrillators aren’t luxury items, they are lifesavers and I think they should be made as affordable as possible so that devices can be installed in more places.”
Dame Priti Patel, Conservative MP for Witham, said:
“It was a real pleasure to meet Jack and the team from the Scrap the Heart Restart Tax campaign, this is a campaign I whole heartedly support. Jack’s story is why defibrillators are essential across local communities.
I hope that in his upcoming Autumn Statement the Chancellor moves to abolishing this immoral tax on this vitally important lifesaving equipment so that more communities across the country have access to defibrillators.”
Read the letter below: