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A pilot program from St John Ambulance Victoria, which aims to encourage communities to learn CPR and install defibrillators, has received a leg up from the Harcourts Foundation.
The first-of-its-kind initiative, which looks to improve the chances of community members surviving sudden cardiac arrest, has been trialled in the Melbourne suburb of Reservoir.
Reservoir has been identified as having no 24/7 publicly available defibrillators, while also having the fifth-highest number of outside hospital sudden cardiac arrests (OHSCA) in Victoria.
A grant of $5,000 was gifted by the Harcourts Foundation to the cause, which has now seen a total of 28 defibrillators installed in Reservoir.
It means “that 90 per cent of residents in the suburb are now within 400 metres of a publicly accessible defibrillator — 24 hours a day, seven days a week”, St John Ambulance chief executive Gordon Botwright stated.
While sudden cardiac arrests have a low survival rate of between 6 and 12 per cent in Victoria, when CPR usage within the first three to four minutes of sudden cardiac arrest is coupled with the use of a defibrillator, survival rates increase to more than 70 per cent.
As well as installing the machines, St John Ambulance said it has delivered “close to 3,000 free CPR sessions to the Reservoir community”.
“This includes accredited training, sessions for primary and secondary school students and free community CPR lab demonstrations,” Mr Botwright shared.
With the final rollout of defibrillators in the Reservoir community now being celebrated, Harcourts Rata & Co directors Daniel Taylor and Alex Doucas have joined with the St John team to find out what’s next for “Defib in Your Street” for 2023.
“We’re delighted to support the success of this very important project and are excited how well it aligns with one of Harcourts most important values —› putting people first,” Mr Doucas commented.
According to the statement, significant public interest and the success of the pilot in Reservoir means St John is now evaluating the program and preparing to roll it out to new suburbs across the state.
Mr Botwright has given sincere thanks to the Harcourts Foundation for its support.
“It has assisted us to provide this important training, free of charge, to members of the community,” he said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grace Ormsby
Grace is a journalist across Momentum property and investment brands. Grace joined Momentum Media in 2018, bringing with her a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Newcastle. She’s passionate about delivering easy to digest information and content relevant to her key audiences and stakeholders.
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