Written Reply to Parliamentary Questions on Automated External Defibrillators at Private Buildings, Public Buildings and in Public Areas, by Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law

Questions:

Mr Darryl David: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs whether it is mandatory for all private buildings, including commercial and residential properties, to have sufficient and easily-accessible automated external defibrillators (“AEDs”) onsite and, if not, why not.

Mr Darryl David: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs what are the guidelines and regulations regarding the availability of automated external defibrillators (“AEDs”) in Government/public buildings and public areas.

Answers :

1. 1. It is not mandatory for building owners, whether private or public entities, to install AEDs within their premises. We do not assess that there is a need to make it mandatory at this point in time.2. Many buildings in Singapore are already equipped with AEDs such as schools, community centres, sports stadiums, bus interchanges, MRT stations, Singapore Armed Forces camps and Home Team facilities. Several commercial and office buildings have also installed AEDs.3. Under the Save-A-Life (“SAL”) initiative, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) has installed AEDs at the lift lobbies of HDB blocks in all 89 constituencies, with one AED for every two HDB blocks. SCDF is looking to expand its SAL initiative beyond HDB estates to condominiums.4. The SCDF is also working with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Singapore Heart Foundation (“SHF”) to encourage more public and private establishments to install AEDs and register their publicly-accessible AEDs with the SHF, in order to build a national registry of publicly-accessible AEDs.5. SHF, in collaboration with SCDF and MOH, has also published on its website a set of best practice guidelines on the installation, registration and maintenance of AEDs.