Journal of public health medicine
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Currently, survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the United Kingdom is poor. Ambulance response standards require that an ambulance reach 75 per cent of cardiac arrests within 8 min. But a short time to defibrillation from the onset of collapse is a key predictor of outcome from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. ⋯ It has been calculated that there are approximately 5,000 instances of VF in public places each year in England. If half of these patients can be reached and administered a first shock within 4 min of their collapse, an additional 400 victims may survive each year. Given the current investment by the DoH of 2 million pounds, this suggests a cost per life saved of approximately 505 pounds over a 10 year period.