by Caroline Wilson

A PILOT scheme where a small team of paramedics prioritise cardiac arrests is expected to double the number of lives saved in Clydebank and north-west Glasgow.

The 3RU pilot from the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) has been running across Glasgow – which has the highest rate of arrests in Scotland – for the past seven months.

It involves a dedicated team of paramedics “circling” the city in vehicles stocked with life-saving drugs and equipment including autopulse vests, which provide automatic CPR while the patient is being taken to hospital, such as the Golden Jubilee.

While the results have not yet been evaluated, project leaders say it is expected to emulate results shown in Edinburgh, where it doubled the number of lives saved.

There are two vehicles, one for south of the river and one for the north, stretching as far west as Clydebank but going further west if needed.

Another vehicle will be added to the city centre by the end of November and then roll out to Lanarkshire.

The SAS say paramedics involved in the 3RU scheme will also require close monitoring and support, since they are likely to experience a high number of traumatic incidents.

Ronnie Hewitson, from Clydebank, who is part of the 3RU team, said: “When you do these jobs, you learn how to process things. We aren’t just supporting the patients, we are supporting the family and sometimes that’s more traumatic.

“We are seeing a mother lose her son, a husband losing his wife.

“It’s about trying to detach. There is a perception then that we don’t care but that’s not the case.

“When you get a good result, it’s great.

“There is no typical scenario. It’s a very wide spectrum. It could be drug related, it could be someone suffering from something like Sepsis, it could be a young person with an underlying heart condition.”

The Glasgow team sees around 30-40 cardiac arrests every month, where the heart stops beating. A heart attack is caused by a blockage in an artery, cutting off blood supply to the heart, and patients can remain conscious. A third of people who are having a heart attack will go into cardiac arrest.

Steven Short, who helped devise the 3RU scheme for the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) said it was showing “very promising” results.

It is part of a range of national measures aimed at saving an additional 1,000 lives by 2020.

He said: “There is a high volume of cardiac arrests in Glasgow, through all the health conditions people suffer from.

“There are direct links between areas of social deprivation and cardiac arrests. You are more likely to suffer from a cardiac arrest but less likely to get bystander CPR.

“When you have a cardiac arrest the most important person is the person standing next to you. You rely on them to recognise the problem, phone for help and do bystander CPR.

“It’s a huge part of improving survival.“We partner with Save a Life for Scotland, along with the British Heart Foundation and other partners, to improve bystander rates.

“We have also made a small but important change to calls. We go straight to, is the patient breathing then say, right we need to get them on the floor and start CPR, rather than asking their name, address. It means we can go straight to CPR advice.”