Save a Life For Scotland

What is Save a Life for Scotland?
The most impactful element in the ‘Chain’ is increased rates of bystander CPR. In 2015 RRG formed the Save a Life for Scotland partnership (SALFS) to change the way people living in Scotland view OHCA and provide a platform on which 12 partner organisations (including Emergency Services, Third Sector organisations and Scottish Government
) can optimise their contribution to increasing bystander CPR rates.

Examples of Save a Life for Scotland Activity since October 2015:

  • The SALFS partnership has helped over 200,000 individuals become ‘CPR ready’ through direct face-to-face contact with the public, received over 200 volunteer applications and has a social media following of more than 5000 across platforms.
  • We have developed a range of bespoke tools to facilitate CPR familiarisation in Scottish schools with the support of Education Scotland. Directly facilitating over 168 CPR training events including 58 in schools across Scotland.
  • Our campaign partnership with YoungScot including production of a Facebook live video viewed 45K+ times (YoungScot’s most successful video to date).
  • In April 2018 we launched a digital short based around the Proclaimer’s hit ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ and featuring Carol Smillie.

Impact:

  • National bystander CPR rates increased from 40% in 2011-15 to 49% in 2015-17, with a concomitant increase in survival to discharge from 6.2% to 8.3%. This equates to a full double decker bus load of additional OHCA patients surviving to hospital discharge in 2016-17.

Find out more:

  1. www.savealife.scot
  2. Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest, A strategy for Scotland, 2015, ISBN: 9781785442407 (http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/03/7484)
  3. Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest, A Strategy for Scotland Review 2015/16, ISBN: 9781786526038 (https://beta.gov.scot/publications/out-hospital-cardiac-arrest-strategy-scotland-review-2015-16/)