Confusion around what to do during COVID-19 when someone’s in a cardiac arrest could cause delay in life-saving action, warn charities. 

Resuscitation Council UK welcomes the Department of Health and Social Care’s commissioning of the Care Quality Commission to review the use of DNACPR during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Resuscitation Officer Nicki Rennison spoke to RCUK about how the James Cook University Hospital is facilitating Newborn Life Support courses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following feedback from professionals, patients and their families, Resuscitation Council UK has improved the ReSPECT (Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment) process which supports conversations about care in a future emergency. Version 3 of the ReSPECT form is even more patient-centred than previous versions and contains more prompts for explicit clinical reasoning.

We're encouraging the public to give people their best chance of survival by learning skills in CPR right now, citing recent studies that show how fewer people have performed bystander CPR during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learning CPR gave Peter the skills and confidence to save a life. He's urging others to learn CPR right now, and be prepared to perform CPR in an emergency.

A recent report by the Queen's Nursing Institute provides insight into the effects of COVID-19 in a number of areas for those working in the nursing and residential home sector.

RCUK welcomes the news that Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has made a commitment to publish clearer guidance around DNACPR as soon as possible. We have heard too many stories of patients being pressured into agreeing not to have cardiopulmonary resuscitation attempted without any sense of shared decision-making or understanding of the relevance for them. 

Donna Campbell, resuscitation department manager at James Cook University Hospital, explains how she has facilitated the safe delivery of RCUK Immediate Life Support (ILS) courses during the COVID-19 pandemic.   

Leeds Children’s hospital successfully ran their 9th Advanced Resuscitation of the Newborn Infant (ARNI) course in June 2020. Many course candidates had been booked for over a year. Not wanting to let them down, the hospital successfully identified a way to run a safe, socially distanced course and ensure that professionals could continue to access vital training despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.