1st Resuscitation Symposium Of The Resuscitation Council Of Asia And 2nd Singapore Resuscitation Symposium 2006

05 Mar 2006

By Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister Of State, Ministry Of Information, Communication And The Arts and Ministry Of Health

Venue: Changi General Hospital

Good morning

Dr Teo Wee Siong, Chairman, National Resuscitation Council

Dr Kazuo Okada, President, Resuscitation Council of Asia

Associate Professor Eillyne Seow, President, Society for Emergency Medicine in Singapore

Associate Professor Lim Swee Han and Dr Benjamin Leong, Organising Chairmen for the 1st Asian Update in Resuscitation.

Distinguished guests

Ladies and gentlemen

1. It is my pleasure to be here to officiate at the opening of the 1st Resuscitation Symposium of the Resuscitation Council of Asia, and 2nd Singapore Resuscitation Symposium, jointly organized by the National Resuscitation Council and the Society for Emergency Medicine.

2. Coronary heart disease is the second most common cause of death in Singapore after cancer, accounting for about 19% of all deaths in 2004. That is about 3000 deaths per year related to heart disease. There are about 15000 hospital admissions per year for heart attacks and other ischemic heart diseases. These figures although seemingly high are in line with those released by the World Health Organisation, which states that coronary heart disease accounts for a larger proportion of deaths in South East Asia, compared to Europe.

3. Most heart diseases are preventable, and so are the morbidity and mortality from these conditions.  In an effort to improve the survival for patients who collapse from cardiac arrest, the Ministry of Health launched the Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Programme (CPR) in 1983 at the Singapore General Hospital.  The objective was to train medical and nursing staff and, eventually, members of the public in this simple, but vital life saving skill.

MILESTONES IN CPR TRAINING

4. Since its inception, the CPR programme has come a long way. Not only is it conducted in all restructured hospitals, it is also conducted in private hospitals and by community organizations.  This expansion began with the Red Cross Society of Singapore launching its CPR programme in 1985, followed by other organizations such as the Singapore Armed Forces and the Singapore Civil Defence Force. As a result of all these efforts, about 30,000 people , from both the healthcare sector and the general public, are trained annually in the skill of administering CPR.

5. It is vitally important that healthcare professionals and members of the public are trained in CPR. During a cardiac arrest, time is of essence. There is little time to think about how to respond. A healthcare professional or a by-stander who is adequately trained in CPR would be able to increase the chances of survival for a patient with cardiac arrest. The availability of automated external defibrillation (AED) devices at selected places outside the hospital further enhances this survivability and could contribute to saving even more lives.

6. And so in 1989, collaboration between the Singapore General Hospital and the Singapore Civil Defence Force resulted in a pilot automated external defibrillation (AED) programme in the SCDF Emergency Ambulance Service.  This was the first time AEDs were used outside hospitals. Since then, other organizations such as the Singapore Armed Forces and Singapore Airlines have adopted the use of AEDs.

BACKGROUND OF NATIONAL RESUSCITATION COUNCIL (NRC)

7. In 1998, the National Resuscitation Council (NRC) was established with the objective to standardize and maintain the practice and teaching of resuscitation in Singapore. The NRC has since formulated National Guidelines on Resuscitation, established the criteria for the accreditation of CPR centers and audited the performance of these centers, including centers that teach the use of AED devices. To date there are 8 AED training centers, 4 Advance Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) training centers, 20 Basic Cardiac Life Support (BCLS) training centers, 7 Life Support Course for Nurses (LSCN) training centers and 2 BCLS Instructor Training centers in Singapore all being accredited by the NRC.

FORMATION OF RESUSCITATION COUNCIL OF ASIA (RCA)

8. I am also pleased to note that in January last year, the NRC took the further step of helping to form the Resuscitation Council of Asia (RCA). This council also includes as its founding members, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. The formation of the RCA is pivotal in raising the awareness and training of CPR in Asia. There are many countries within Asia that do not have their own Resuscitation Councils and it is the aim of the RCA to encourage and provide assistance to these countries to set up their own Resuscitation Councils. The NRC has informed me that they intend to work closely with the RCA to achieve this objective.

9. I believe that with the formation of the RCA, Asia will also be formally represented in the next International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) Guidelines meeting. This committee made up of the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa and many European Countries, was formed to provide a forum for liaison between principal resuscitation organizations worldwide and they have recently published their 2nd International CPR guidelines.

LAUNCH OF THE SINGAPORE CPR GUIDELINES

10. One of the aims of this symposium I am told is to update all attendees on the new 2nd International CPR guidelines and concurrently launch the Singapore CPR guidelines. The new Singapore CPR guidelines will update our local CPR training centers and personnel with the latest life saving skills.

THE FUTURE

11. These latest guidelines or even the presence of an AED device is worthless if no one is there to administer these skills. It is imperative that the public take the positive step of wanting to learn these life saving skills. At the moment, it is a requirement that all healthcare staff have to undergo at least the BCLS course. The public, however, have no such requirements. So this public mindset must change, from apathy and the belief that learning CPR is someone else's duty, to one of shouldering the responsibility, not only for oneself, but also for the community.

12. This was recently exemplified by a 17-year-old student, who was on her way to school 2 weeks ago, when she came upon an elderly gentleman collapsed on the road in Holland Village. She immediately started CPR while her friends and bystanders called for an ambulance. It was reported in the papers, that because of her quick actions she had saved this man's life. She was quoted as saying that she had wanted to learn CPR when she was in secondary school and at 14, she attended a course conducted by the Red Cross Society of Singapore.  Little did she know how useful those skills would become.

CONCLUSION

13. It is on this note, that I find it heartening to see such a good turnout of enthusiastic CPR practitioners this morning. You have come to learn from the many distinguished overseas speakers in life support training, and be updated on the new local resuscitation guidelines. I hope it will be a fruitful and interesting symposium for you and now it gives me great pleasure to declare this symposium open.

Thank You.