Proposed new legislation titled the Defibrillator Public Access Act would require defibrillators be installed and maintained in public places such as high-traffic public schools, airports and recreation centres. This announcement was made by Health Minister Theresa Oswald.
“Cardiac arrest can strike quickly and without warning, but access to a defibrillator can dramatically increase the odds of survival,” said Oswald. “Our government is the first in the country to introduce legislation that would help increase the number of defibrillators and support public accessibility to these devices, which could save the lives of many Manitobans.”
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Manitoba, defibrillation used with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can dramatically improve cardiac-arrest survival rates by 75 per cent or more over CPR alone.
“Manitobans do not have to die of cardiac arrest. Immediate access to defibrillation could mean the difference between life and death in a cardiac-arrest situation,” said Debbie Brown, president and chief executive officer of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Manitoba. “We would like to see defibrillators as commonplace as fire extinguishers and this legislation is a great step forward.”
An automated external defibrillator contains sophisticated electronics that can identify cardiac rhythms, Oswald explained. The equipment will deliver a shock to correct abnormal electrical activity in the heart. The defibrillator will only deliver a shock if the heart is in a rhythm which can be corrected by defibrillation.
The new legislation would not only require defibrillators to be installed at designated public places, but also support public access in an emergency by requiring signage to identify the location of the defibrillator and require they be centrally registered. The registry would be shared with 911 dispatchers to allow them to assist those trying to care for a cardiac-arrest victim to find the nearest defibrillator and guide them through the proper use of the machine.
The province would work with medical experts, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Manitoba and other stakeholders in the community to identify places where people are most at risk for cardiac arrest and would benefit from having a defibrillator on site.
This would include reviewing the level of risk of the activities carried out on the premises, the number and risk of the members of the public using the premises and the response time for local emergency services.
Based on findings of the review, installation of the defibrillators would be phased in to allow facility owners to incorporate these costs into their financial planning, Oswald noted. Schools and community recreation centres would also be able to access provincial government funding for defibrillators through existing capital and grant funding programs.
“We know cardiac arrests occur outside of the hospital 85 per cent of the time,” said Chris Broughton, a Winnipeg paramedic and president of Manitoba Government and General Employees Union Local 911. “Paramedics are in the business of saving lives and public access to defibrillators while paramedics are on their way can literally mean the difference between life and death for hundreds of people.”
While defibrillators are now standard equipment on all provincial fleet ambulances, having the devices in high-traffic public places could support faster access to life-saving defibrillation before paramedics arrive, Oswald said.
“I’m proud this new legislation will support more tools that can be used to save lives,” said Oswald. “I want to express our appreciation and gratitude to Manitoba paramedics and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Manitoba for their leadership and advocacy.”
The minister noted that early access to a defibrillator would build on other investments in the health system to ensure access to emergency and cardiac care. They include:
• fitting all ambulances in the provincial fleet with automated vehicle location (AVL) units, a $550,000 investment to improve central dispatching and support timely patient care;
• investing in the fleet vehicle program to purchase 160 new ambulances to support ambulance standards and reduce purchase and vehicle-operation expenditures;
• beginning to provide cardiac surgeries for left-ventricular assistance devices, a bridge to transplant for some cardiac patients;
• purchasing a $3.7-million replacement Lifeflight jet and making an additional investment of $6 million in aviation and medical modifications to the plane;
• investing $40.3 million to make the St. Boniface General Hospital a centre of excellence for heart surgery and cardiac care; and
• investing $7.8 million to develop the Medical Transportation Co-ordination Centre in Brandon, the dedicated centre for the dispatch of all rural and northern medical services.
