© 2004 by BMJ Publishing Group & British Cardiac Society
EDITORIAL
Pre-hospital resuscitation: breathing life into a stale subject
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Clive F M Weston
Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit, Royal College of Physicians of London, 11 St Andrews Place, London NW1 4LE, UK; cfmw@lycos.com
Is there anything left to learn about the management of cardiac arrest outside hospital?
Abbreviations: CCAD, Central Cardiac Audit Database; CPR, cardiopulmonary resuscitation; MINAP, Myocardial Infarction National Audit Project; NSF, National Service Framework
Keywords: resuscitation; cardiac arrest; ambulance; registry
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
In the second half of the 20th century, cardiologists played an influential role both in the development of techniques used in pre-hospital resuscitation and in the organisation of systems to deliver such emergency care.1,2 In the UK this included doctor manned mobile coronary care units, the training of ambulance crew in advanced life support skills, and the equipping of all emergency ambulances with defibrillators. More recently, however, most British cardiologists have become disinterested and less involved in the management of this manifestation of heart disease.
There are many reasons for this apparent apathy. It is partly explained by the increasing contribution of other specialists in accident and emergency medicine and the expansion of posts for medical directors within the ambulance service, together with the expanding workload of cardiologists within a hospital environment. Moreover, the hoped-for glut of survivors from prehospital cardiac arrest has not materialised. Some large community programmes have
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