public areas
Phyllis Tsang
Mar 09, 2009
The government says it will study over the next two years the feasibility of installing life-saving defibrillators in government buildings and public facilities like sport centres - but medical experts and a lawmaker say that time frame is too long.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong International Airport, which sees 4 million passengers a month, does not have one defibrillator accessible to the public in its 710,000 square metres of terminals.
The only defibrillator owned by the Airport Authority is in a private medical centre at the airport, hundreds of metres away from arrival and departure gates. There are five other defibrillators at the airport, owned by police, the Port Health Office, and another one owned by the medical centre.
Automated external defibrillators are portable apparatuses that can be used to help heart-attack victims and can easily be used by laymen.
Some government departments were equipped with defibrillators last year. The Central Government Offices and the Murray Building, where most senior government officials work, have been equipped with a total of three defibrillators. The Fire Services Department ran a one-day training course for staff at the buildings.
The Leisure and Cultural Services Department, which manages libraries, museums and public sports facilities, said its facilities had not been equipped with defibrillators, but the department was looking at introducing them.
Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok told lawmakers last Wednesday that the government would, over the next two years, consider installing defibrillators at public facilities.
But cardiologist Bernard Wong Bun-lap said "legal considerations" were just an excuse by the government to avoid putting resources into providing the life-saving equipment.
"The first five minutes after a person suffers a heart attack are critical to a patient's survival. We call it the golden five minutes. Using the defibrillator is as easy as using an Xbox.
"The government and corporations should not avoid using such equipment," he said.
Defibrillators are widely used and available in public facilities in Japan, Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia.
Airport terminals like Chicago's O'Hare International, Haneda airport in Tokyo, London's Heathrow and Germany's Frankfurt airport are all equipped with at least 10 defibrillators. Most are publicly accessible and located near gateways. One can be found within every 100 metres at Haneda airport.
At Chek Lap Kok, an Airport Authority spokeswoman confirmed that no training on the use of defibrillators had been provided to airport officers. She said staff were instructed to call an ambulance and an airport medical specialist for help.
Staff at the private medical centre said a basic fee of HK$1,300 was charged for every patient treated inside the airport's restricted area, including heart-attack victims.
Charges might be paid by the authority, airlines, or the patient, depending on the circumstances, the authority spokeswoman said, without detailing what criteria would be used to apportion fees.
The spokeswoman said the authority intended to buy another defibrillator.
Heart disease is the No 2 killer in Hong Kong. In 2007, 6,372 people died of heart disease in the city, compared with 6,031 in 2006, Department of Health statistics show.
Lawmaker Patrick Lau Sau-shing said the government was moving too slowly on the installation of defibrillators in public buildings and at the airport. All such venues had large flows of people and needed good emergency equipment.
"Scientific research shows that every one-minute delay in administering electric shock to patients suffering a heart attack will reduce their survival rate by between 7 per cent and 10 per cent," Mr Lau said.
"Defibrillators should be available, like fire extinguishers, for public use."
Various restaurant and bar operators in Lan Kwai Fong installed defibrillators at their establishments at least two years ago.
A spokesman for Kai Shing Management Services, a property manager for Sun Hung Kai, said the company had installed at least 40 defibrillators at various buildings and shopping centres that it managed within the past two years.
A 61-year-old man who suffered a heart attack last year in the food court of Grand Century Place, a shopping mall in Mong Kok, was saved because the mall was equipped with three publicly accessible defibrillators.
A mall employee, Andy Leung Hui-on, who had been trained to use a defibrillator, stabilised the man's heartbeat within three minutes of his collapse, before an ambulance arrived 10 minutes later.
Shock tactics
- Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are portable devices that automatically analyse a patient's heart rhythm and deliver an electrical shock to restore a normal rhythm.
- The user applies two electrode pads to the patient's chest.
- After being turned on, the device provides step-by-step instructions. Some have voice prompts.
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