Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) has teamed up with Save a Life for Scotland on Tuesday, October 18 as part of the Resuscitation Council (UK) event, Restart a Heart Day. Organised in partnership with other life-saving organisations, the campaign aims to drive the Scottish Government’s strategy to increase survival rates through improving bystander CPR.
Every week in Scotland, 70 people suffer cardiac arrest and more than 3500 people per year in Scotland are treated by the Ambulance Service following a cardiac arrest, where only one in 20 people will survive. Scotland’s survival rates are below national and international survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
Save a Life for Scotland aims to equip people in Scotland with essential bystander CPR skills, with a target of reaching 500,000 people by 2020. It is estimated training could save 300 lives every year and an additional 1000 lives by 2020, which would double the current survival rates across the country.
Liz Simpson, GCU’s School of Health and Life Sciences, said: “The campaign is crucial to improving survival rates in Scotland and we are keen to get as many people as possible involved in learning essential life-saving CPR skills. Learning to save a life is in your hands and only takes 10 minutes out of your day. We would like to encourage as many people as possible to come along on the day and learn from our highly skilled experts and one another.”
GCU is one of a number of organisations taking part on the day, including the Scottish Clinical Skills Network, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, the Scottish Ambulance Service, Medical Defence Services, the British Red Cross, St Andrew’s First Aid, the British Heart Foundation, HeartStart, Cardiac Services, and Laerdal Medical.
Lisa MacInnes, National Programme Manager for Save a Life for Scotland, said: “Working in partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University and our other life-saving partners gives us the opportunity to bring life-saving CPR skills to more people in Scotland. Increasing the incidence of bystander CPR is the cornerstone for improving survival rates. The power to save lives is in our hands and we would encourage students, staff and members of the public to become one of the 500,000 and join us on the day at the University.”
The event will take place in the University’s Arc building from 10am to 4pm.
Links
Save a Life for Scotland