Health: Cardiac Arrest

Baroness Wheeler Excerpts

Monday 17th July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

The noble Lord is exactly right: surviving a heart attack is one thing, but recovery, both of the victim and their family, is another. I will take that point back to the department.

[Baroness Wheeler (Lab)]

My Lords, it is estimated that 999 call handlers and ambulance services do not have access to data on the whereabouts of tens of thousands of defibrillators, meaning that emergency services cannot direct bystanders to them in the event of a cardiac arrest while they wait for ambulance support. We know that a victim’s chance of survival falls by about 10% with every minute that defibrillation is delayed. What steps are the Government taking to address this, particularly targeting areas of poor health and high OHCA incidence so that the chances of survival in these communities can be significantly increased?

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

On the noble Baroness’s latter point, NHS England has partnered with St John Ambulance to co-ordinate skills development to significantly increase the use of AEDs by individuals in community settings such as those she has just outlined. The ambulance service has access to the location of defibrillators, but, as I said to the noble Lord earlier, it is important that, if you have a defibrillator, you register it so it ends up on the system.