Air ambulance service launches campaign to teach CPR skills

The charity has launched a campaign to teach members of the community how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and use an automated external defibrillator (AED).

The initiative, called CPR Skills for Life, aims to equip people with the confidence and skills to respond to cardiac emergencies. This comes as the air ambulance service responds to cardiac-related incidents in one in five of its missions.

With around 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occurring annually in the UK, and fewer than one in ten people surviving, the charity is keen to increase these odds. The free sessions are taught by the charity's critical care team, basic life support instructor-trained staff, and volunteers.

Clinical director of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, Dr Simon Hughes, said: "Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates are shockingly low in the UK. Every minute that goes by without a patient receiving CPR or defibrillation, their chance of survival decreases by 10 per cent.

"Much of the work we as a clinical crew do is only possible because bystanders, often friends and family members, have acted quickly and known what to do in an emergency."