The Restart a Heart campaign (RSAH) is an annual initiative in it’s 6th year and is led by the Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK) in partnership with The British Heart Foundation (BHF) and various Ambulance services.
The campaign aims to improve the low numbers of people surviving out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. Survival rates from out of hospital cardiac arrest remain very low in the UK, with fewer than one in ten people surviving. If CPR were more widely taught, so many more lives could be saved every year.
Most people tend to only learn First Aid when they are requested to do so by their employers, however approximately 80% of cardiac arrests happen in the home. As we are all spending more time at home during COVID-19, that statistic could well be higher at the moment. Learning CPR guarantees that you have the skills to help those around you.
In 2019, an amazing 291,000 were trained in CPR through Restart a Heart Day and we are extremely proud of our contribution towards that figure as that day we provided free CPR sessions at Weston Beach Race
It’s now time to get ‘hands on’ for Restart a Heart Day on the 16th October 2021. By learning and performing CPR, you could be the difference between life and death for a loved one at home, a colleague at work, or a stranger in the street.
In light of COVID-19, the steps you should take when performing CPR have changed – but the need to perform CPR has not. You can view our CPR adaptions during Covid poster here
Out of hospital cardiac arrests have not stopped during the pandemic and have a less than 10% chance of survival. A cardiac arrest occurs when the heart stops pumping blood around the body, and causes a person to collapse and stop breathing normally.
Bystander CPR provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest can double or even triple a victim’s chance of survival, but on average only 32% of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from a bystander.
Restart a Heart 2021 will see some in-person events resume in the UK. Digital learning will still play a key role in ensuring that everyone has a chance to learn CPR and that those having a sudden cardiac arrest have their best chance of surviving. Sadly, without intervention it’s unlikely the person in cardiac arrest will survive.
Whether you’ve learnt CPR before, or this is your first time, this is an opportunity to learn how CPR guidance has changed during COVID-19 and gain the skills and confidence to help if someone collapses and stops breathing normally. It is important to quickly call 999, perform hands-only CPR and use a defibrillator. This gives everyone the best chance of surviving.
If you would like to book onto one of our First Aid courses to learn CPR, please contact us or view and book our Open Courses availability here
Prefer to talk about your training and consultancy needs?