Public access defibrillation: the road ahead

From a series in 2012-2013, only 2.3% of all OHCA patients survived to discharge, a rate considered low compared with other developed countries in Asia.1 2 Meanwhile, the survival-to-discharge rate for OHCA in Singapore has doubled over the last 10 years because of the improved emergency medical services response time and the successful public access defibrillation (PAD) programme.3 Early defibrillation is one of the most important elements in the Chain of Survival.4 Hong Kong has had a PAD programme for more than 20 years although there are no formal statistics for the number of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs). According to an estimation of one of the AED locator mobile app developers, there are approximately 5000 AEDs installed in publicly accessible areas. A local study showed that public knowledge about AEDs was inadequate and fewer than 20% of respondents to a survey would use one.6 The lack of enactment of a Good Samaritan law may not reassure members of the public about possible liability when using an AED, even though they are designed to be operated by a layperson.