Poots Demands Increase In Emergency Life Support Skills

Health Minister Edwin Poots has called for an increase in the number of people who can offer emergency cardiac arrests skills critical to keeping patients alive until professional help arrives.

In a written statement, the Minister updated the Assembly on his plans to maximise the number of people trained in Emergency Life Support (ELS) through developing the Community Resuscitation Strategy for Northern Ireland.

He said: "Each year approximately 1,300 cardiac arrests occur outside a hospital environment. Tragically, fewer than 10% of people who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest will survive to be discharged from hospital.

"ELS skills are the key set of actions needed to keep someone alive until professional help arrives. It includes performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR); dealing with choking and serious bleeding; how to put someone in the recovery position, and helping someone who may be having a heart attack.

"The evidence indicates that in places where there is a high proportion of the population trained in ELS skills the survival rate for those who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is higher than in areas where the proportion of the population trained in ELS skills is low. I believe a Northern Ireland community resuscitation strategy will help to focus a drive to increase the number of people, of all ages, trained in ELS skills and to coordinate the use of available resources to achieve this."

(GK)