Key Messages
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- This investment got underway to meet the needs of the new national plan to deal with emergencies that arise \x96 the Framework for Major Emergency Management This plan sets out the role of the Irish Red Cross, alongside the statutory emergency services and other bodies.
- The ambulance replacement programme will increase the organisation\x92s ability to deal with new kinds of emergencies that require faster responses and the ability to reach more remote areas, by introducing \x96 for the first time \x96 a mobile command and control unit. The Irish Red Cross is also acquiring off-road vehicles, traditional ambulances, minibuses and wheelchair-adapted minibuses.
- In July 2007, in recognition of its reputation for excellence in First Aid, the Irish Red Cross hosted the international First Aid competitions in Limerick. Known as FACE (First Aid Convention in Europe), these competitions brought over 25 countries from around Europe to Limerick to compete in First Aid.
- The Irish Red Cross is the most widely recognised provider of First Aid training in Ireland.
- One of the most acute and dangerous conditions in Ireland is cardiac arrest, the Irish Red Cross has doubled its cardiac arrest response capacity in the last three years.
- Evidence shows that for each minute\x92s delay in delivering a shock to a casualty in cardiac arrest (ventricular fibrillation) there is a 10% reduction in survival rates.
- Ireland has one of the highest rates of cardiac mortality in Europe (fourth-highest)
- 18 people die in out of hospital cardiac arrest in Ireland every day \x96 that\x92s 6,000 people a year \x96 estimates indicate that as many as half of these could be saved with the swift application of a defibrillator.
- In 2006, the Irish Red Cross launched its \x93Cross Out Day\x94 campaign to provide defibrillators to groups of people who are not Red Cross members in clubs and communities around Ireland.
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