Plans are in hand for all ambulance crews assisting cardiac cases to always carry with them portable medical equipment known as automated external defibrillators, a spokesman for the government hospital services said.
Hospitals information and communications department executive head Tonio Bonello explained that although government hospitals already owned 67 portable defibrillators, five automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, would be bought and these will be installed in some of the ambulances.
In addition, paramedics assigned to ambulance will all be trained in the use of such equipment, he said.
Defibrillators deliver an electrical shock to sufferers of cardiac arrest in a bid to return the heart's normal rhythm. AEDs are small lightweight devices that measure a person's heart rhythm and if necessary deliver an electric shock to restore the normal rhythm.
Mr Bonello said the acquiring of the AEDs is still in the tendering process stage and, therefore, it would take a few months before they were actually in use.
Cardiology services chairman Albert Fenech said portable defibrillators were becoming increasingly popular and useful, especially in places where access to medical care was limited or not easily accessible, like an aircraft. Prof. Fenech said portable defibrillators were even being acquired by families of people with a heart condition, since the equipment was quite small and cost a few hundred liri.
"Using a defibrillator on a person suffering cardiac arrest increases the possibility of the person surviving," he explained.
Mr Bonello said that, to date, it was not normal procedure for emergency staff to carry a defibrillator when summoned to assist a patient who is potentially suffering from a heart attack "unless there is clear information of sudden cardiac arrest as witnessed by a health care professional".
"If there is no clear indication of a sudden cardiac arrest, the ambulance does not take a defibrillator. On the other hand, if there is a clear indication, the ambulance will be dispatched with a defibrillator," he said.
According to the American College of Emergency Physicians when a person suffers sudden cardiac arrest, the chances of survival drop by seven to 10 per cent for each minute that passes without defibrillation and a victim's best chance of survival is when there is revival within four minutes.
When asked whether the health services' policy could lead to the waste of precious time in a genuine case of sudden cardiac arrest not witnessed by a medical professional, Mr Bonello said this was not the case. "Our people are all trained to give cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and they can sustain the patient until they arrive at the hospital," he said, adding that the short distances here should be kept in mind. The UK Resuscitation Council however says that electrical defibrillation is well established as the only effective therapy for cardiac arrest.
Prof. Fenech said defibrillators were useful in both ambulances and public places. However, he said it was useless to take a defibrillator on an ambulance if there was nobody with the necessary training to use it on board. He said it would take a few months for a person to be trained to use a defibrillator.