Across the UK there is a condition which affects tens of thousands of people each year, where life-saving treatment is possible but in a startling number of cases it is not received in time.
Around 30,000 people suffer from out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year in the UK. Currently, the survival rate – shockingly – is less than 10%. What can be done to improve the situation? This report offers a way forward by making the case for ensuring that vehicles contain portable defibrillators.
Abstract
The installation of defibrillators by car manufacturers in all new vehicles in the UK would dramatically improve cardiac arrest survival rates by ensuring rapid access to defibrillation for the vast majority of the population, given the country’s widespread vehicle ownership and common cardiac arrest scenarios.