New project looks at CPR provision in the region
A new research project is to look at CPR inequality in the North East and Cumbria.
The project, being led by the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS), is due to start later this year and will look at why people are less likely to give – or receive – life-saving CPR.
Despite the region having a higher number of cardiac arrests happening in the community, statistics show if you have a cardiac arrest outside of hospital in our region, you are less likely to receive CPR.
The research team at NEAS has secured £50,000 from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) for the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) to undertake a 12-month project to better understand the reasons and begin to address these inequalities.
Research paramedic Karl Charlton, lead researcher on the project, said: “We know that every minute without CPR and defibrillation reduces the chances of survival by 10 per cent, but that for some reason, people in the North East and Cumbria are statistically less likely to receive bystander CPR than other parts of the country.
"Current research suggests that this could be down to higher levels of social deprivation in our region but we don’t understand why.
“This research aims to begin to address this inequality by trying to understand how people feel about bystander CPR.
"Our findings will then inform future research to redress this issue.
“The work will target areas of deprivation and marginalised communities.”
For more about the project email research@neas. nhs.uk