Defibrillator donation to ACT Sports Clubs
St John Ambulance calls for wider access to life-saving defibrillators across the ACT.
‘While Australia has a nine per cent survival rate from Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA), we know that this survival rate can be rapidly increased with the installation of accessible defibrillators right across Canberra,’ Adrian Watts, CEO, St John Ambulance ACT.
‘I want to see Canberra adopt a nation-leading approach where defibrillators are readily accessible and the majority of the population has been educated in CPR,’ Mr Watts said. ‘Today we are calling on all the sporting codes in the ACT to adopt a safety-first approach to their players and spectators. We are working with ten of Canberra’s major sporting codes to enhance safety awareness and increase accessibility to defibrillators.’
‘We are so pleased to be supported by St John Ambulance ACT through this initiative and their support of enhancing player and spectator safety’, Ivan Slavich, CEO of Capital Football.
His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, today presented a defibrillator to representatives from ten sporting codes across the ACT.
St John Ambulance ACT has previously called for defibrillators to be provided in all government buildings, depots and Canberra’s 150 schools. At present, there is no requirement for ACT Government properties to have defibrillators. ‘I am calling on the ACT Government to follow the lead of South Australia and make defibrillators mandatory in all public buildings, schools and sporting facilities,’ Mr Watts said.
‘Every year, there are 30,000 deaths due to SCA in Australia. If we had greater access to defibs it’s estimated around 12,000 lives a year could be saved. That’s well over 100 every year in Canberra alone,’ he added.
