Agenda item

Report of the Patients Forum of the London Ambulance Service.

The Chairman welcomed Malcolm Alexander from the Patients' Forum for the London Ambulance Service (LAS) and Chris Hartley Sharpe from the LAS.

Mr Alexander reported that the LAS Patients' Forum was supporting the LAS campaign to encourage every pharmacy in London to install a defibrillator and ensure that staff are trained in their use. Mr Hartley Sharpe advised the Sub Committee that where there is a defibrillator and someone trained to use it within a short time frame, the chance of survival from cardiac arrest can increase from approximately 28% to 80%. He also advised Members that LAS had set up an accreditation scheme to ensure effective use and management of defibrillators. The accreditation scheme also registered the defibrillators so that LAS are aware of its location, and can alert the holder in the event of an emergency in the vicinity. The accreditation would last for two years to ensure defibrillator users received regular training. LAS were developing a database of existing defibrillators, though, as it was compiled reactively, Members noted this would not be a comprehensive list. Members also noted that the LAS and the Patient’s Forum would like to see every City of London pharmacy hold a defibrillator registered on its accreditation scheme.

Members discussed the project in detail, including the need for government guidance and support, and queried how the LAS’s scheme was being promoted nationally. Mr Hartley Sharpe advised that he was promoting this work with LAS’s across the country, some of which were adopting similar projects. Members agreed to write to Mark Field, MP for the City, to seek support to promote the holding of defibrillators in pharmacies and the LAS accreditation scheme. The Sub Committee queried about training in schools, and Mr Hartley Sharpe reported that CPR training in schools was not compulsory in the UK, but the LAS collaborated with Saving Londoners Lives to train teachers and provide them with the equipment to train others.

RESOLVED – That:

(a)  A letter be sent to Mark Field MP regarding the need for statutory defibrillator guidance from the government, and seeking support to promote the holding of defibrillators in pharmacies and their accreditation through the LAS scheme;

(b)  To use the City’s Business Healthy network to promote the scheme to businesses in the City;

(c)  A recommendation be made to the Health and Wellbeing Board to undertake a survey of which premises in the City had defibrillators on site; and

(d)  The report be noted.