HIQA calls for targeted defibrillator deployment

Any national plan to increase the public availability of defibrillators should target places associated with a higher incident of cardiac arrest, the Health Information and Quality Authority recommends.

HIQA’s assessment of providing defibrillators in public places also recommends establishing a national defibrillator register.

Measures should also be introduced to encourage more people to learn about and use the devices.

HIQA found that none of the current public access defibrillation programmes that it examined were cost-effective.

Their report points out that providing up to 38,000 additional defibrillators would cost up to €105m over the first five years and save an additional 10 lives annually.

There are around 9,000 defibrillators currently available in Ireland.

HIQA said Ireland already had a wide distribution of defibrillators. However, the current system was not standardised, co-ordinated or linked to emergency medical services.

The health authority was asked to undertake a technology assessment of the public availability of defibrillators by the former Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly, last September.

The assessment was to inform the minister on the Public Health (Availability of Defibrillators) Bill 2013, introduced in the Seanad in June this year by Senator Feargal Quinn.

The proposed legislation would make it mandatory to have defibrillators in designated public places around the country such as hotels, shopping centres and churches and at other places regularly attended by over 100 people per day.

HIQA said the bill could affect 43,000 premises throughout Ireland.

Senator Quinn said a defibrillator costs €1,500 and the yearly cost of maintaining one was around €100.

“I welcome HIQA’s suggestion of the targeted deployment of defibrillators in locations with a higher incidence of cardiac arrest. This is a good starting point, but it’s only a start and much more must be done,” he said.

He urged the current minister for health, Leo Varadkar, to introduce a grant scheme for the initial purchase price and training costs associated with a mandatory defibrillation scheme.

Defibrillator manufacturer HeartSine Technologies said its devices had saved 10 lives in Ireland this year.