The story appears on

Page A4

January 23, 2018

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Metro » Society

More AED first aid training ‘is needed’

LOCAL political advisers say more defibrillators should be installed in public spaces.

Automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) have been widely recognized for their key role in saving the lives of people suffering cardiac arrest, but now training in how to use the devices should also be stepped up.

More than 600 such devices have been installed around the city since September 2015, but few people know how to use them, according to the proposal from the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party.

Chen Fangyuan, a specialist at Renji Hospital’s hematology department, pointed out there were no hard-and-fast rules on installation and few managers of public spaces were willing to install them and train their staff in how to use them.

Ordinary residents also lacked first-aid training and even some of those who had received training were not confident of being able to handle emergencies.

The Shanghai Red Cross Society has trained about 30,000 local people in emergency rescue skills in recent years, but that was far from enough compared to the city’s 20 million permanent residents.

Chen said first aid training covered 25 percent of the population in America, 40 percent in France and 80 percent in Germany.

Chen and her fellow party members proposed the government work out a special policy to ensure that major public places in the city have AEDs installed.

It was also suggested the government promote the installation with special funding, training and qualification systems. A team of volunteers should be trained in five years.

Chen said the growth in the number of installed devices should not be the goal and that it was better to have them in places with large flows of people.

Public awareness of first aid should be enhanced via increased training and promotion. Besides current training activities, it was suggested the Red Cross Society organize drills and make use of new technology to improve citizens’ knowledge and abilities in first aid.

Local schools were also asked to teach first-aid skills.




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend