Tackling inequalities in resuscitation

At Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK), our core mission is to ensure that everyone who has a cardiac arrest has access to appropriate cardiopulmonary resuscitation. By 2030, we want cardiopulmonary resuscitation to become a mechanism for reducing social inequalities, not another measure of them. 

Health inequalities are not inevitable - they are avoidable, unfair differences in health between different groups of people. If you live in some of the poorest parts of the UK, or come from a particular ethnic minority group, you may be less likely to survive a cardiac arrest. This is not acceptable.

The UK lags behind other countries in CPR awareness and currently less than one in ten survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Simple, lifesaving skills and confidence aren’t yet as widespread as they can and must be to save more lives. To address inequalities in resuscitation, we must focus on those who are most likely to have a cardiac arrest, and least likely to know what to do if they witness someone who has collapsed and is not breathing.

Every second counts: Tackling in inequalities in resuscitation report

When someone has a cardiac arrest, every second counts, no matter who you are, where you're from or your socio-economic status.

Every second counts: Tackling inequalities in resuscitation warns that socio-economic deprivation, a person’s ethnicity, or cultural background shouldn’t determine whether a person is more or less likely to survive a cardiac arrest. The report looks deeper into the inequalities in resuscitation that affect people's chances of surviving a cardiac arrest and includes our recommendations on how to close the inequality gap. RCUK have listened to people affected by inequality in cardiac arrest and there is a determination to ensure that in the ultimate medical emergency, everyone has an equal chance of survival.

As part of the report, we have commissioned research to understand the views and expectations of people from certain ethnic minority groups in England, around learning and performing CPR and defibrillation. We also spotlight many innovative community, policy, and public health initiatives led by key partners across the United Kingdom to ensure that as many people as possible have the skills they need to save a life.

Creating a CPR-trained society will save more lives, improve public health, and enhance community resilience during emergencies. A modest, but carefully targeted investment of public funds in partnership with NFP partners would deliver a significant increase in survival and positive outcomes and transform the UK into a world leader.
 

Read the report

Key recommendations

As the national expert on resuscitation in the UK,  we have taken the evidence gathered in this report and made the following recommendations on ways to close the current gap of inequalities:

• Legislate for CPR training to be part of driving licence tests.
• Westminster and the Devolved Governments to support and fund a public awareness campaign, targeting CPR training in cardiac arrest hotspot areas, through ‘Restart a Heart’ month. 
• Increase bystander CPR rates through targeted monitoring of CPR training in schools. 
• Continue to collect ‘out-of-hospital cardiac arrest’ data as part of national strategy. 
• Prioritise public access to defibrillators in areas of high cardiac arrest incidence. 
• Target CPR training resources for underrepresented occupational groups. 
• Northern Ireland Executive to work with Resuscitation Council UK to create ‘Save a Life Northern Ireland’. 
• Government and local authority defibrillator initiatives to require registration onto The Circuit. 

How to get involved

Share the report on your digital channels

We've developed a digital toolkit including key messaging, suggested social media copy and imagery to use to amplify our messaging and urge action on our key recommendations.

How you can engage with your Parliamentarian:

Get in touch 

If you have any questions, feedback or ideas, get in touch by contacting communications@resus.org.uk.