THE LACK of co-ordinators to support communities using the Health Service Executive's (HSE) newly launched cardiac first responder guide has been criticised by the Irish Heart Foundation (IHF).
The Cardiac First Responder Guide was launched by the HSE last week to help communities establish programmes aimed at keeping people with cardiac arrest alive using cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillators (AED) until emergency medical staff arrive.
The guide was developed by the HSE with others, including the IHF, and was one of the recommendations of the sudden cardiac death taskforce looking at tackling the estimated 1 per cent survival rates from out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests.
"There is a problem in relation to a number of appointments necessary to ensure the success at local level," said Michael O'Shea, chief executive of the IHF. "It was agreed that 11 co-ordinators would provide on-the-ground support to local communities. However, due to a HSE embargo on recruitment, they are being held up," he said.
"This will impact on the effectiveness of the programme. It is a good guide but communities need an ongoing person they can ring up."
"We urge the HSE to effect those appointments. There is a huge voluntary effort in trying to tackle the 6,000 deaths annually from sudden cardiac arrest and a great volume of effort deserves at least these appointments," he said, adding that he had written to the HSE's hospitals office raising the issue.
The chairwoman of the sudden cardiac death steering group, Dr Siobhan Jennings, confirmed that no co-ordinators have been appointed.
However, she said she understood that the HSE still hoped to undertake the development. There are plans to improve co-ordination nationally and regionally and she said she would "make enquiries that this is prioritised".
The HSE wants first responder programmes to be set up in many parts of the community including shopping centres, clubs, airports and workplaces.
Communities will need lots of practical help on issues such as which defibrillator to buy. However, this "needs government backing and needs appointments to be put in place", Mr O'Shea said.
"There has been concern about the variety of equipment out there and the different ways of buying it, as it needs to be updatable," Dr Jennings said. The guide does not contain this advice but gives directions on where to get the information.
Ultimately, the co-ordinator would know where all of these programmes have been set up so that people could find the nearest defibrillator in an emergency, according to Dr Jennings. However, it would not be possible to gather this information until a co-ordinator was appointed.
The HSE has not provided funding to train community groups and provide equipment. However, Mr O'Shea was confident that voluntary groups would raise funds for equipment and training, as was the ethos with the IHF's heart safe programme a few years ago.
The HSE intends to get the community base involved in these programmes, which will include medical professionals within communities.
The HSE also plans to have targeted response programmes in isolated communities, Dr Jennings said.
