When you dial 999 for someone in a life-threatening condition, you would expect an ambulance to be dispatch to you straight away. In 2018/2019 the LAS (London Ambulance Service) was able to treat over 100,000 patients in 2 months .But this year, in April 2020, for the first time ever if you dialled 999 you would have heard an engaged tone.
The current coronavirus pandemic is stretching the NHS to its limits. LAS has only 450 Ambulances and 100 First Response Vehicles available, this makes servicing London’s population of 9 Million people very challenging.
Let’s consider another important factor, time . It takes just 2mins for an adult’s brain cell to die without receiving oxygen, only 5mins for half the brain to die and 10 mins for all the cells to die. The time is much less for children and babies. So think how long does it take for an ambulance to arrive to a scene. According to NHS website response time for arrival is set at 8mins, although in most cases the wait can be much longer, like when covid was at its peak.
There has never been a more relevant time to learn First Aid. A recent study published by the Red Cross showed that only 5% of the population felt confident and willing to carry out first aid in three life threatening emergencies – helping someone who is bleeding heavily, unresponsive and breathing and unresponsive and not breathing. Now that’s concerning if you need help.
If you are one of the many thousands of people working from home, caring for your family or a love one, you should definitely be considering learning or refreshing your First Aid skills.
Learning first aid is now more accessible than ever before. Courses can be tailor made to suit and now its possible to learn online or live via zoom from the comfort of your own home. Courses lasts on average 2hrs with costs varying from £25 upwards. There are even courses for young children to learn.
Although Covid has taken too many lives and caused heartache it has in some ways made us more emphatic to those who work in the NHS . The mantra has been save lives and protect the NHS. Well if we all learnt how to save a life at home surely that would help the NHS .
Written by Kingsley Ogedengbe,
First Aid Trainer @ Primrose First Aid Training
