"A strategy that saves lives."

Working in policy and public affairs can at times be a merry go round of conferences and seminars, meetings and coffee catch-ups but every now and then you attend something and hear something that just catches you, it leaves you energised and even for just a second the light at the end of the tunnel begins to shine that little bit brighter.

This week I had the pleasure of attending BHF Northern Ireland's Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Summit at the Titanic Experience in Belfast. (A must visit for anyone visiting the city.) The Summit comes at an interesting time in Northern Ireland; the nearly 2 million population of Northern Ireland have went about their daily lives for over 600 days now with no national legislative body; the national strategy for OHCA is over 4 years old and still largely waiting to be delivered. So what is there to be enthused about?

Well the Summit brought together the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, international experts, Local Authorities, the Departments for Health, Communities and Education, all 5 health spokespeople from the political parties in Northern Ireland and most importantly the hard working volunteers from communities right across Northern Ireland who tirelessly work to train people in the vital skills of CPR.

Stephanie Leckey, Community Resuscitation Lead at NIAS, laid out the challenge to all in the room. For the first time in Northern Ireland we had data sets that told us the real scale of the problem. With 1494 OHCA's occurring in 2016-17 only in 15% of cases is bystander CPR performed. We know that for every minute CPR is not performed chances of survival decrease by 10%, and we know that bystander CPR is vital in improving survival rates.

Thanks to this work we now know the scale of the challenge, not a problem a challenge, and challenges are there to be be overcome. Just like Denmark did in the early 2000's. Dr Freddy Lippert, CEO EMS Copenhagen, enthused the audience with Case Study Denmark: Tripling Survival Rates from OHCA. An International success story that saw bystander cpr increase from 19% in 2001 to over 65% in 2014, an example that shows challenges are there to be tackled.

In Denmark 75% of successful resuscitations result in the individual returning back to work 

Prof Bernd Bottiger brought the German experience with a stark reminder that in industrialised nations death from OHCA is the third most common cause of death and also a reminder, or a history lesson, that "all you need is two hands." The programme Director of the KIDS SAVE LIVES initiative Prof Bottiger highlighted the role of mandatory CPR training in schools in leading a culture change across Germany and increasing rates of bystander CPR.

But where does that leave Northern Ireland?

After the Summit, a very good place. Bystander CPR rates may be low today, however the evidence shows that it does not need to stay this way. With the presence of a national strategy there is focus. NIAS' community resuscitation team provide a dedicated team across Northern Ireland's communities. The British Heart Foundation's HeartStart and Call Push Rescue programmes providing training across Northern Ireland and a strong sense of political will seems committed to push the issue up the agenda. The summit was attended by all health spokespeople from the 5 parties in Northern Ireland and throughout the day they shared their support for driving this agenda. 

Some strategies improve lives, some strategies change lives. But this strategy SAVES lives.

However the highlight of the day was those who had lived experience of OHCA joining the Summit and sharing their story. All the stories were so powerful and highlighted the importance of bystander CPR, the importance of helping a fellow human in their moment of need. However given that so much focus was on CPR training in school Clare Doyle's story is one that resonated with delegates. 

When she had a cardiac arrest in bed one morning her 14 year old daughter, Melissa, used the skills she had been given by school nurse Eileen McConnell, performing CPR for 4 minutes before first responders arrived. Clare, Melissa and Eileen joined the Summit to share this story when Melissa put in to action the skills she thought she would never have to use to save her mother.

It has been over 3 years since Scotland embarked on this journey, one that has been inspiring and incredibly productive. However the feeling at the end of the day in Belfast was the same as that I sensed in Scotland back in 2014. In Public Health we like to look at what has worked and where and today we look to Denmark, Norway & Germany, but tomorrow, I sense we may very well be pointing to Northern Ireland.