This week marked “Restart a Heart Day”; a day to raises awareness of cardiac arrest and increase the number of people trained in lifesaving CPR and defibrillation.
Sadly, more than 30,000 out of hospital cardiac arrests happen every year in the UK with less than one in ten people surviving. Administering early CPR and defibrillation can more than double the chances of survival in some cases.
I am pleased that a number of free CPR training sessions have been held locally (including at Horsham FC) in recent days to ensure more people know what to do if someone goes into cardiac arrest.
For those who could not attend an in-person session, the British Heart Foundation has created RevivR, a free 15-minute CPR training guide which teaches people exactly what to do when someone has a cardiac arrest. RevivR can be found here: https://www.bhf.org.uk/how-you-can-help/how-to-save-a-life/how-to-do-cpr/learn-cpr-in-15-minutes
We are very fortunate that in many of our villages we have dedicated teams of Community First Responders who are on call to respond to medical emergencies (including cardiac arrests) in the immediate area. Trained by South East Coast Ambulance Service, volunteers are able to start early CPR and defibrillation prior to an ambulance arriving. SECAmb are always looking for more CFRs to join their teams. More information can be found here: https://www.secamb.nhs.uk/join-us/community-first-responders/
Horsham and many of our villages have defibrillators accessible to the public. Some are in repurposed telephone boxes and others are in high footfall locations. Defibrillators make a huge difference to someone’s chances of survival and I am pleased that the Department for Health and Social Care has recently launched a fund for community organisations to apply for grant funding for defibrillators.
The defibrillator grant will provide at least 1,000 new devices for community spaces across England. I would encourage community spaces which do not currently have access to defibrillators to apply for funding. More information can be found here: https://www.defibgrant.co.uk/#apply
It would be great if local residents were to familiarise themselves as to their nearest defibrillators. The British Heart Foundation have put together a defibrillator map which can be found here: https://www.defibfinder.uk/