Oxfordshire resuscitation expert warns of gaps in CPR knowledge
A new report has found that CPR training disparities based on deprivation, a person’s ethnicity, or cultural background are putting thousands of lives at risk.
Resuscitation expert Adam Benson-Clarke from Oxfordshire has highlighted the inequalities in the practice of saving someone’s life.
A new report by his organisation Resuscitation Council UK has found that defibs are lacking in areas where people from ethnic minority backgrounds live and that many didn’t know where their nearest one was.
Early defibrillation can more than double survival rates, yet defibs are lacking in areas where people from ethnic minority backgrounds live with over half of these areas having no defibs at all.
That number is significantly lower in areas where predominantly white British people live.
Defibs are also lacking in the most deprived parts of the UK with almost half having no defibrillator registered on The Circuit, the national defibrillator network.
The study also found that seven in ten people from ethnic minority backgrounds didn’t know where their nearest defib was, in contrast to the wider UK population where six in ten did know.
Speaking about the problem Adam said: "When somebody faces the ultimate medical emergency and we want to make sure that everyone has the skills and the knowledge to save a life.
"Throughout the UK there are pockets of areas where CPR training, knowledge on how to access training and how to use a defib are not as they should be for certain people.
"Seven in 10 people from certain ethnic minority backgrounds don't know where their nearest defib is. but that's unsurprising when a lot of these areas don't even have a defib."