An ageing population is driving up the number of heart attacks paramedics are responding to across the Loddon Mallee.
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New data from Ambulance Victoria showed the region’s paramedics responded to the highest number of cardiac arrests in at least ten years.
AV’s latest cardiac registry annual report analysed data from all out-of-hospital cardiac arrests which paramedics responded to in 2015/16.
It found “significantly higher” rates of attacks per head of population in rural areas, with 128.6 cardiac events per 100,000 people, compared to 89.7 in metropolitan areas.
The Loddon Mallee region experienced the highest number of cardiac arrests for at least 10 years with 127.7 cases per 100,000 people.
AV’s Loddon Mallee regional director Kevin Masci said the health system and emergency crews were seeing the population getting older.
“Just in general the demand for these services is going up and our treatments are getting better,” he said.
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Mr Masci said paramedics were always looking to improve treatment guidelines and response times, which was helping more people survive cardiac arrest.
He said one of the main reason more patients were surviving cardiac arrest was that bystanders were stepping in during the first five minutes of attacks, before the brain could be badly damaged from lack of oxygen.
“If you think about median ambulance response times to cardiac arrests, they are a bit over seven minutes statewide,” he said.
Average response times in rural areas was 9.9 minutes in regional areas. Despite ongoing work to reduce those figures, Mr Masci said they would likely never fall below five minutes.
“So the strategy since we started gathering those figures has been to focus on training and encourage more automatic defibrillators out in the community,” Mr Masci said.
He encouraged more community groups and workplaces to install automatic defibrillators.
AV dispatch operators could direct bystanders to automatic defibrillators registered with the service and explain how to use them.