Ambulance

Focus on Scottish Ambulance Service
OHCA can be downloaded here:
www.gov.scot/scottishohcastrategy
There are seven key strands of work
outlined in the strategy which are now
being progressed: early recognition, CPR,
defibrillation, pre-hospital advanced
life support, post resuscitation care,
rehabilitation and aftercare, culture and
context. We have developed a delivery
plan that sets out intermediate outcomes
and related indicators to allow us to
monitor and drive forward progress against
these priority areas.
Early results are encouraging. Ambulance
Control Centres across the country are
prioritising cardiac arrest: the cardiac arrest
8 minute response is 5% higher and triple
responding is up by 15%. Overall the
percentage of patients in cardiac arrest with
a shockable rhythm arriving at hospital
with a pulse has increased from 34% to
40%.
Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS)
Save a Life for Scotland is the public facing
strand of the OHCA strategy aimed at
increasing public awareness of OHCA and
encouraging people to learn CPR. It was
launched at an event on Princes Street
in central Edinburgh on 16th October
2015, by Gregor Newton, a cardiac arrest
survivor on behalf of the Resuscitation
Research Group. The event was also
attended by Maureen Watt, Minister
of Public Health and over 20 partner
organisations and industry sponsors.
“This multi agency approach is great, it’s a
huge marquee, All these organisations are
here and the general public are coming to
learn and it’s great to see this happening.”
—Maureen Watt MSP
The launch event was a great success
with over 1400 people learning the basic
skills of CPR in Edinburgh alone. Members
of the public were invited into the tent
to meet with volunteer CPR trainers
from a wide variety of organisations and
backgrounds. They received a basic ‘hands
on’ introduction to CPR using Mini-Anne
manikins.
Spring 2016 | Ambulancetoday
Participants were invited to signal a
commitment to undertaking training in
CPR and their willingness to perform
basic life support should the need arise.
In the SALFS photo suite many had their
photograph taken and signed their name,
or simply ‘I’ll do it’ across the print as
their pledge. These photographs made an
impressive photo wall and record of the
day. Many were tweeted and are visible at
the SALFS website www.savealife.scot
Small cards with SALFS website information
were handed to many on the streets and
those who entered the marquee. Since
the event we have been contacted by
many organisations and individuals around
Scotland requesting further information
about the availability of CPR training.
Launching Save a Life for Scotland
around the country
In addition to the Edinburgh event, over 70
Fire Stations across Scotland opened their
doors to the public and provided ‘hands-on’
CPR training to local communities. Scottish
Ambulance Service held events at National
HQ, the Scottish Borders, West Lothian and
Glasgow Centre. Glasgow Science Centre
while Glasgow Dental School provided
training in the Glasgow Science Centre.
Heartstart, BASICS and Community
First Responder groups provided events
in Aberdeen, Neilston, Orkney, Falkirk,
Dalbeattie, Bathgate, Lanarkshire and Perth.
Video footage from the day can viewed at
the following link: www.rrg-edinburgh.
com/rrg-coordinates-save-a-life-forscotland/
Plans are being developed for a
similarly ambitious event in 2016.
Triple Responding (3RU)
The Scottish Ambulance Service is central
to the delivery of high quality pre-hospital
care and to improving OHCA performance
and outcomes. One of the important areas
they are supporting is the roll out of 3RU
in urban communities across Scotland.
In 2007, the Resuscitation Research Group
(RRG) at the University of Edinburgh
identified the need to improve the chain-ofsurvival
for OHCA patients in south-east
Scotland, where the national Heartstart
Scotland database showed local survival to
discharge rate at the time was less than 1%.
The group identified the requirement to
improve all elements of the local chain of
survival in order to save lives. Following on
from the initial TOPCAT study on OHCA,
the team identified a unique opportunity
to dramatically improve the quality of
prehospital resuscitation practice, through
defibrillator downloads, resuscitation
feedback to EMS crews, simulation
training and supporting resuscitation team
leadership.
In collaboration with the Scottish
Ambulance Service, RRG set up the unique
Resuscitation Rapid Response Unit (3RU).
The response unit sends a specially trained
3RU paramedic as a second-tier resource
to lead OHCA resuscitation on-scene.
The 3RU support-team consists of two
doctors, 13 paramedics, a resuscitation
officer, a research nurse and several medical
students. The team volunteers to meet
on a bi-monthly basis in their own time
to maintain a high level of enthusiasm.
The team was the first in the UK to
pioneer a unique system of defibrillator
data download and resuscitation feedback.
Following every cardiac arrest, detailed
resuscitation quality data is captured.
The defibrillator data is analysed and
fed back to the attending ambulance
crew so performance can be continually
improved. The team meets in the clinical
simulation centre to undertake advanced
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