Staff problem ‘blocking’ cardiac initiative

COMMUNITY-BASED programmes to reduce sudden cardiac deaths are not being linked up with the national emergency service because the €800,000 allocated for the appointment of 11 approved Health Service Executive posts is now “blocked”, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

Mary Vasseghi, of the Sudden Cardiac Death in the Young Support Group, said the positions were key to the full roll-out of the Cardiac First Responder programme to reduce the thousands of people who die every year when their heart suddenly stops.

About 6,000 people die annually in Ireland as a result of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) with death occurring within minutes of a heart stopping. “You have a 1% chance of survival in Ireland today if your heart stops,” Ms Vasseghi told the joint committee on health and children.