St John fundraiser making progress
The barometer is rising next to Pahiatua New World as the community nearly reaches the $400,000 mark in the St John appeal for a new ambulance and health shuttle building.
“We hope to see the red line going up in a hurry. We need some of the Christmas spirit of generosity to bring it up a bit,” said fundraising organiser David Lea.
“Anyone of us could use the ambulance at some stage of our lives. The key is having a 24-hour, fully-manned station here in Pahiatua with an accommodation block.
“It will give somewhere to park the two health shuttles that any of us could have to use as we get old or frail enough — we might all need to be shuttled to our health appointments in Palmerston North. The existing facility is no longer fit for purpose,” he said.
More than 1600 people die of a cardiac arrest that occurs out of hospital in New Zealand every year. Over the last 2017/18 year, St John has treated more than 2000 people who have suffered a cardiac arrest. This equates to five people per day. In this, the fifth St John Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Registry report (OHCA), five years of data now casts fresh light on who these people are, who is most at risk and why, as well as those most likely to survive. Where you live also plays a role, with the upper North Island having the greatest number of cardiac arrests as well as the biggest population base.
Survival rates are a key benchmark of the clinical quality of an Emergency Ambulance Service (EAS) and worldwide, rates of survival are low. OHCA data is used to identify and improve clinical care and survival outcomes. It is encouraging that St John NZ’s cardiac arrest survival rate of 13 per cent compares well against other emergency ambulance services: Ambulance Victoria (11 per cent); London Ambulance Service (10 per cent); St John Western Australia (11 per cent); and the King County EMS, USA (20 per cent).
We know that people in the least deprived areas have a higher survival rate than those in the most deprived areas. Using a measure* that is believed to be the first of its kind to correlate New Zealand’s cardiac arrest rates with deprivation and ethnicity, this year’s OHCA reports that people from the poorest communities are overrepresented in this number. Ma¯ ori have both the highest rates of cardiac arrest and the lowest survival rates. Pacific Peoples’ also have higher cardiac arrest rates and lower survival than Europeans.
When a heart stops beating, every minute counts. New Zealanders are far more likely to step up and try to help people in cardiac arrest than people in other countries. A considerable number of those experiencing a cardiac arrest received help from a bystander (74 per cent received CPR and 5.1 per cent received defibrillation). This is critical because for every minute without CPR or defibrillation, the survival rate drops by 10 per cent.
“The biggest inroad we can make to NZ’s cardiac arrest survival rate is to dramatically increase the public’s use of AEDs (Automated External Defibrillators) along with CPR,” says St John Medical Director Dr Tony Smith.
“Over the last five years, bystander use of AEDs has grown from 3.9 per cent in 2013 to 5.1 per cent.
“With public awareness campaigns and the introduction of the GoodSAM app we want to see this number grow further.
“If you can use a mobile phone, you can use an AED.”
‘The biggest inroad we can make to NZ’s cardiac arrest survival rate is to dramatically increase the public’s use of AEDs (Automated External
’ Defibrillators) along with CPR
DR TONY SMITH