The State’s ambulances are to be fitted with new technology and equipment to help paramedics and specialist clinicians provide faster and better cardiac care.
Announced by the Minister for Health, Brad Hazzard, the package is to equip ambulances with an additional 550 mechanical cardiopulmonary resuscitation Lucas devices (CPR); 1,400 state-of-the-art ECG/defibrillation devices; and a new cardiac notification platform to improve communication between NSW Ambulance and Emergency Departments.
“NSW Ambulance will be the first ambulance service in Australia to have mechanical CPR Lucas devices in every frontline ambulance, ensuring patients can receive life-saving chest compressions throughout their journey to hospital,” Mr Hazzard said.
“Every second counts during a cardiac arrest,” he said.
“These devices give patients the best possible chance of staying alive by supporting our highly trained paramedics to provide the best life-saving care from the minute they arrive at the patient’s side through to when they reach the hospital.”
Chief Executive of NSW Ambulance, Dominic Morgan said NSW Ambulance worked with practising clinicians to develop the cardiac care package to ensure it provided the most effective tools for responding to patients suffering cardiac arrest.
“The Lucas CPR devices are a game changer as effective chest compressions are very hard to maintain for long periods, or when a patient is being moved down a flight of stairs to the ambulance, for example,” Dr Morgan said.
“These devices will provide ongoing compressions in these challenging situations,” he said.
“Patients will also benefit from the new Corpuls 3T 12-lead ECG/defibrillators which weigh considerably less than previous defibrillators, making them safer and easier for paramedics to use.”
Dr Morgan said the defibrillators performed non-invasive blood pressure monitoring, capnography, pulse oximetry, temperature recording and pacing.
He said the new cardiac notification platform would help streamline the transfer of patients from ambulance into hospital by improving communication between emergency departments and clinicians.
“The cardiac notification platform assists with the transfer of clinical observation data from ambulances and regional hospitals to tertiary hospitals so we can provide more rapid and effective treatment to patients with suspected heart attacks,” the Chief Executive said.
