More than 100 Canberrans every year could be saved from sudden cardiac arrest if defibrillators were installed in businesses, schools and buildings across the territory, St John Ambulance says.
Newly-appointed St John Ambulance chief executive Adrian Watts has called on the ACT government to lead the charge, by putting a defibrillator in every government building and the ACT's 150 public schools over the next parliamentary term.
The survival rate of sudden cardiac arrest in Australia is 9 per cent, a figure Mr Watts described as appalling.
"If we can double that within the ACT, that would be tremendous," he said.
"We know we can increase that survival rate just with the use and access to these defibrillators."
Around 25,000 Australians die of sudden cardiac arrest each year, but Mr Watts said that could be almost halved if more defibrillators were accessible and more people had CPR training.
Mr Watts said 80 per cent of sudden cardiac arrests outside hospital occurred in the home or workplace.
Although he hoped one day defibrillators would become a safety norm, like a smoke alarm or fire extinguisher, he said this was a first step.
"I would love to call for every Canberran to have a defibrillator in their home and I think in 10 years time we might be able to be at that point, but right now we need the government to lead this," he said.
"Standards are harder to change and legislation is harder to change, what isn't hard to change is spending $1 million over four years for the government to say we respect our people and we want to save your lives.
He wants to see Canberra's other businesses get on board too, and has reached out to the Canberra Business Chamber to campaign for all workplaces to get the technology at a cost of $2500 for installation and up-keep.
"I'd say that's really inexpensive," he said.
"Perhaps people haven't been able to spend a lot of money on their employees this year with training and development and I'd urge employers to put that money into first aid training.
"They could be saving your life."
Although using a defibrillator is easy-by-design, Mr Watts said thousands more Canberrans needed to take up first-aid training to give them confidence in a crisis.
"While they are automatic devices and they come with instructions what they don't give you is the confidence to be able to use the device and to know you need to provide CPR as well," he said.
"We know we've got tens of thousands in the ACT who get trained every year, it should be hundreds of thousands."
St John Ambulance is currently compiling a register of every defibrillator in the ACT which will soon be made into an app so Canberrans will know where to turn if tragedy strikes.
