Resuscitation Council UK has joined forces with the UK’s ambulance services to encourage everybody to get hands on and learn, or refresh, their CPR skills. 

Only around 1 in 10 people who have a sudden cardiac arrest in the UK survive to hospital discharge, and their survival depends on people around them taking prompt action to try to save their life.

With people now getting into closer proximity to family, friends, colleagues, and strangers due to the easing of lockdown restrictions, it is increasingly important everyone has the skills to save a life and knows how to keep themselves safe.

Read our full statement to learn how to perform bystander CPR during COVID-19, and to find out why cardiac arrest survivor Bryan wants everyone to learn CPR.  

We have launched a survey to glean people’s experiences of using version 3 of the Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment (ReSPECT) form.

Since ReSPECT was first introduced in 2016, we have continued to evolve and improve the process. In September 2020, we introduced an updated version of the form (version 3) used to document ReSPECT conversations.

If you have used the version 3 form, we'd love to hear your views. We're looking to hear from: 

Please complete our anonymous survey now. 

If you know anyone who may have experience using version 3 of the ReSPECT form, please share the survey with them.

The survey will be open for six months and will close on Tuesday, 7th December. 

In May, we published our revised Guidelines. Read the full Guidelines, and listen to RCUK’s Dr Jasmeet Soar and Prof Gavin Perkins discuss the Guidelines in the latest podcast from The Resus Room, available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. 

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We’ve partnered with UK Coaching to produce a free digital toolkit to encourage people involved in sports and coaching activity to learn how to save a life.

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Our new learning portal is now live! Learning CPR skills and AED awareness is now easier than ever – head to the learning portal and purchase e-Lifesaver, our interactive CPR training game, now. 

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We were pleased to support the launch of Eva Carter’s new novel, How to Save A Life. Watch the book launch to hear Eva discuss why CPR awareness is important to her, and to see RCUK’s Isabelle do a CPR demonstration. 

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The ReSPECT Process is referenced in the Royal College of Physicians' updated guidance for clinicians on talking about dying. Read our statement welcoming this news. 

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Many of our new manuals are now available to purchase in our online shop, with more to be added later in the month. 

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Together, we can keep doing work to increase resuscitation education and public CPR awareness, and improve the conversation about CPR decision-making. Become an RCUK member today.  

The seventh National Audit Project, NAP7, will launch on 16 June 2021, with a study on the topic of perioperative cardiac arrest.

The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCOA) National Audit Projects (NAPs) investigate rare perioperative events with the aim of improving anaesthesia-related patient care and outcomes.

Although in-hospital cardiac arrests are included in the National Cardiac Arrest Audit (NCAA), knowledge of the incidence of perioperative cardiac arrests is low as events are usually missed because anaesthetists tend to manage such events without making a 2222 call. The study aims to improve our knowledge and capturing of data in this area of resuscitation.

NAP7 will launch on 16 June 2021 across 330 UK hospitals and will include all perioperative cardiac arrests for one year. Perioperative cardiac arrests will be reported by anaesthetists through a case review online database. Each hospital site will have an appointed NAP7 Local Coordinator (LC).

The team behind NAP7 are encouraging the resuscitation community to notify the LC whenever a perioperative cardiac arrest is suspected. Please visit the NAP7 homepage for more details, including free online resources.