About Us

The Wellington Free Ambulance OHCA report has been put together in conjunction with one for St John New Zealand and a joint report for New Zealand. 

The data presented in this report is for all OHCA attended by the Wellington Free Ambulance from 1 July2019 to 30 June 2020. 

• 77% of patients in Wellington region received chest compressions (CPR) from bystanders (76% in 2018).   

• 32% of all cardiac arrest patients reached hospital alive (unchanged from 2018).  

• In the group of patients whose cardiac arrest was witnessed and treated by a shock from an AED, 38% were still alive one month after leaving hospital (45% in 2018) despite the impact of COVID-19 on our services and patient care, as described in the All NZ report. This compares very well with 48% in Seattle, USA (52% in 2018) where the gold standard is set internationally for survival from OHCA.

Internationally, survival rates following OHCA are highly variable and can range from less than 6% to greater than 50%. Benchmarking survival from OHCA is a key measure of the clinical quality of an Emergency Ambulance Service  and is fundamental to making improvements in OHCA survival.

Knowledge of New Zealand OHCA outcomes is a key driver to help identify and address areas for improvement in clinical care.

For Ryan, minutes mattered when he needed our help last year, as what started as chest pain quickly evolved into a life-threatening situation.

Read how we helped Ryan and his story of survival here.