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THE HEALTH INFORMATION and Quality Authority has rejected the Government’s plan for more public access defibrillators and called for better use of the devices already available.
Last year Hiqa was asked by then Health Minister James Reilly to look into the issue in order to inform decision making on the Public Health (Availability of Defibrillators) Bill 2013.
The Bill proposes the mandatory provision of static automated external defibrillators in a comprehensive list of designated places around the country.
HIQA’s Director of Health Technology Assessment Dr Máirín Ryan said, depending on the number of building types included, the proposed legislation would involve the provision of between 2,000 and 38,000 additional defibrillators
He said it would save between two and ten additional lives annually, at a total cost of between €5.3 million and €105 million over the first five years.
The report also calls for a registry identifying locations of all existing automated external defibrillators (AEDs) throughout the country to be set up. There are currently between 8,000 and 10,000 defibrillators available in Ireland.
“Based on current data, none of the public access defibrillation programmes that we assessed would be considered cost-effective using conventional willingness to pay thresholds, Ryan said.
Targeted placing of defibrillators in higher incidence locations and a national defibrillator register linked to emergency medical services, together with significantly increased use of defibrillators via heightened public awareness, could render public access defibrillation programmes more cost-effective.
“Any prospective programme should start by targeting the mandatory deployment of defibrillators at locations with the highest incidence of out-of-hospital-cardiac-arrest,” Ryan stated.
HeartSine, a defibrillator manufacturer, welcomed the news.
The company said Hiqa’s report “could be a significant turning point in the campaign to reduce the unacceptably high number of deaths that occur from Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) in Ireland”.
CEO Declan O’Mahoney said SCA kills 5000 people in Ireland every year.
“When a person suffers an SCA, there is a critical three to five minute window in which CPR and an AED must be used to optimise the chance of survival. After ten minutes, the chance of survival is almost zero. The median response time of emergency services in Ireland is 11 minutes so having a mobile defibrillator to hand is quite literally the difference between life and death for those unlucky enough to be in such a scenario,” O’Mahoney said.
“A targeted national public access defibrillator programme is the key to reducing the unacceptably high numbers of untimely deaths from SCA here every year,” he added.
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We learned CPR in school nearly 20 years ago. I don’t understand why it not compulsory ? We hear too often of young people dying while playing sports. There was always the whole mouth to mouth thing that turned younger people off but even hands only CPR could save a persons life. It’s very easy and quick to teach.
” He said it would save between two and ten additional lives annually, at a total cost of between €5.3 million and €105 million over the first five years.”
While obviously the sentiment is great, I find it hard to believe that the same money, applied elsewhere, wouldn’t save more lives.
Good stuff. Also, training enough people on their use is vital. And maybe using drones to get them places quicker (as reported on some news site last week).
We have to question is this the best use of that money…
You could pile 105 million into healthy eating, exercise and sports programs.
The HSE could buy 105 million of cholesterol lowering statin drugs
You could offer a cash payout of €210 to half a million people if they lost enough weight to no longer be obese…
I haven’t crunched the numbers but seems like all of the above would have the potential to save more than 50 lives… And have knock on effects for decades for the general health and well being of Irish people.
It’s far better to stop someone developing heart disease in the first place than to have a defibrillators available for when they have a heart attack….
Sudden cardiac arrest isn’t a heart attack. It’s when the heart of a healthy, possibly ultra fit person stops.
Is no one reading what HIQA have actually said? They’ve just told the DOH that more defibrillators are a waste of money, albeit that there are ways of making them slightly less of a waste of money. Also, I’m pretty sure that Dr Mairin Ryan is not a “he”.
They say that compressions are more effective than mouth to mouth resus, An AED costs approx €1600 with the government getting their cut via VAT.
But the chances of the little rotund f**k from Limerick leaving the VAT at zero is nil.
From what I know the government have been asked to lower vat on AED’s but have said no.
Can’t help thinking that you’d get a fair few nurses, doctors and perhaps even an ambulance or two for 21mil a year. Probably save a few more lives and the 20 mil would help the economy a lot more in the doctor and nurses pockets than “invested” in a piece of plastic stuck up on a wall in ballygobackwards, that has to be replaced in 8 years anyways.
What good are defibrillators if the public don’t know where they are ? a database needs to be established urgently
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