More Victorians than ever are stepping up to help those in need, according to the latest annual report of the Victorian Ambulance Cardiac Arrest Registry (VACAR).
Chief Executive of Ambulance Victoria, Tony Walker said the report revealed that 80 per cent of Victorians benefited from the early intervention of bystanders performing CPR in 2019-2020.
Associate Professor Walker said he was relieved by the Report’s findings, especially after all the challenges faced in 2020.
“We were very concerned that COVID-19 would greatly impact patient outcomes and we’ve worked extremely hard to turn this statistic around,” Professor Walker said
“Only last October we launched Shocktober, the largest campaign in our service’s history, to increase the number of Victorians who know how to provide Cardiopulmonary Rresuscitation (CPR) and use an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) in the event of cardiac arrest,” he said.
“With every minute that CPR and the use of a defibrillator are delayed, survival drops by 10 per cent.”
Professor Walker said the Report showed the second highest proportion ever of people suffering cardiac arrests defibrillated prior to ambulance arrival, with 66 per cent of those patients returning home to their loved ones.
He said Ambulance Victoria also attended 6,761 cardiac arrests, 242 more than the previous year.
“Paramedics provided care within an average of 7.7 minutes of the call to Triple Zero (000) with most patients defibrillated within 10 minutes,” Professor Walker said.
“This is despite the pressures of putting on Personal Protective Equipment during COVID-19 and an influx of patients over last year’s busy bushfire season,” he said.
VACAR’s 74-page Annual Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
