Creating Life Savers
When it comes to CPR skills - the message is to pass them on.
The British Heart Foundation teamed up with the Scottish Fire and Rescue service in Perth earlier - to launch its Call Push Rescue initiative.
The aim of its new strategy is to increase survival rates so that an extra 1000 lives are saved by 2020.
Uniformed staff are already trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the service wants all its staff to have the chance to learn these life-saving skills so that even more lives can be saved when someone goes into cardiac arrest outside of hospital.
SFRS Board Chairman Pat Watters said: “The service has an important role to play in terms of increasing survival rates, saving an extra thousand lives by 2020 and helping to train an extra half a million people in CPR.
“The Board is delighted to be setting an example by being trained in the delivery of CPR and we thank BHF Scotland for providing the training. We intend to offer this training to all our support staff on a voluntary basis so they have an opportunity to play a role, as well as our firefighters, in saving an extra 1000 lives.”
The BHF’s Call Push Rescue takes just half an hour to complete the training. It’s designed around a DVD, meaning there is no need for a trainer so SFRS can become completely self-sufficient in teaching CPR.
Judy O’Sullivan, Director of Services at the BHF, said: “Call Push Rescue is part of the BHF’s UK-wide ambition to create a Nation of Lifesavers, where everyone will have the skills to help save a life when someone goes into cardiac arrest.
“We’re delighted the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is using Call Push Rescue kits so it can teach staff the simple skills that could save a life.
“If Scotland achieved the same survival rates of 25 per cent, as seen in parts of Norway where CPR is taught in all schools, then 700 more people per year could survive.”