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

The report has a number of statistics throughout, but a few to note include: 

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

• 32% of all cardiac arrest patients reached hospital alive, very good by Australasian standards.  

• In the group of patients whose cardiac arrest was witnessed and treated by a shock from a defibrillator, 45% were still alive one month after leaving hospital – this compares well with 52% in Seattle, USA which sets the gold standard internationally for survival from OHCA. 

Wellington Free Ambulance Medical Director Andy Swain says these results must be applauded. 

“This is phenomenal. It is a real testament to the efforts of our Heartbeat staff and volunteers, who teach CPR to so many people in our community; our Emergency Medical Dispatchers, who provide CPR instructions over the phone; those bystanders prepared to do CPR; Fire and Emergency NZ crews who help at 93% of cardiac arrests and of course, our frontline crews,” Andy says. 

Although Wellington Free is called to 200 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year – a number that’s lower than other ambulance organisations around the world – the service also attends many critical patients who are subjected to resuscitative procedures to try and prevent the onset of cardiac arrest. Survival from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is the key measure of the quality of care provided by an emergency ambulance service. 

With that said, this shows our joint effort of efficient working, coordination of the whole team and a commitment to our patients and community is helping save lives. 

“We achieve as a team when we work together, thank you for your ongoing commitment," he says.