London Ambulance Service (LAS) is calling on all Londoners to join a lifesaving movement as part of its ‘London Lifesavers’ campaign to recruit and train 100,000 life savers who can perform chest compressions and use a defibrillator.
LAS responded to almost 14,000 cardiac arrests across the capital in 2021, and in the few minutes it takes for an ambulance crew to arrive at the scene, the actions of passers-by can make the difference between life and death. Without lifesaving intervention like CPR and defibrillators, the chances of survival decrease by 10% every minute.
The ‘London Lifesavers’ project, which has been boosted by £895,000 of funding from NHS Charities Together, aims to bring the number of trained volunteers to 100,000 and increase the number of defibrillators around London to more than 10,000. Achieving that will mean more than 100 lives ever year could be saved.
LAS will work with communities, organisations and the public to deliver CPR training, and support communities to introduce an extra 4,000 public access defibrillators in the city.
Once trained, Londoners will have the option to be connected to the LAS automatic alerting systems, such as the GoodSAM app. These systems are linked to the 999-call system and sends an alert to London Lifesavers when someone nearby is in cardiac arrest.
All ‘999’ call handlers are always here to help if someone collapses and can talk them through what to do. London Lifesavers will also be kept up to date via regular newsletters on the latest guidance and news stories.
As the number of recruits begins to grow, LAS will consider other ways in which the campaign may help communities. These will range from checking in on the elderly and vulnerable in periods of extreme weather to collecting prescriptions or driving mobile patients to treatment centres.
