SGH rolls out simplified 1-hour CPR programme

SINGAPORE — A recent study by the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and National Heart Centre Singapore has shown that participants who learnt simplified cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) gave better chest compressions than those who went through standard CPR training.

The study involved 85 individuals with no CPR experience, who underwent either the standard training — consisting of chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation — or the simplified training, which comprises only chest compressions.

To get more people to become part of a CPR-ready community, SGH rolled out its one-hour simplified CPR programme yesterday to some 60 participants from various religious and community groups, at the Methodist Church of the Incarnation.

The programme, known as Dispatcher Assisted first Responder, was introduced last year in schools and has been taught to more than 8,000 people since. Besides being taught chest compressions, participants are told what to do during emergencies.

As feedback has been encouraging, it is hoped the programme will be rolled out to more communities over the next three years. SGH said it hopes to help raise Singapore’s survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest from 3 per cent to up to 20 per cent. CHANNEL NEWSASIA