GoodSAM

The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) has been partnered with the internationally acclaimed GoodSAM app to respond to life-threatening calls involving cardiac arrest since June 2019.

Appropriately trained off-duty EEAST frontline staff and our community first responders have been responding to alerts via the GoodSAM app on their smart phones. The sooner effective cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is started, the better the chances of survival for the patient. If a defibrillator is readily available, patients are six times as likely to survive.

Since going live we have seen great examples of cases where GoodSAM responders have attended cardiac arrests and these patients have since been discharged from hospital alive, we have also seen many cases where patients have gained a return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC).

We are pleased to announce that from the 13th December 2019 EEAST is increasing the pool of GoodSAM volunteers to include non-EEAST registered Health Care Professionals. This means that if you are a health care professional with a registered governing body you can sign up to GoodSAM today. You will be part of a lifesaving team working with the East of England Ambulance Service to improve the outcome for patients in cardiac arrest in a pre-hospital environment (Register to be a GoodSAM responder here).

Gary Morgan, Deputy Director of Service Delivery for EEAST, said: "This is excellent news for members of the public. Having seen the success of the system since June, we are keen to continue bringing the benefits of GoodSAM to the East of England. By connecting a community of appropriately trained and accredited volunteers, our collaboration with GoodSAM is clearly saving lives across the region.

By providing quality CPR in the first few minutes following cardiac arrest, we are able to give the patient the best chance of survival. The partnership will not affect or be a substitute for standard ambulance or CFR dispatch. Those resources will continue to be sent to the scene in the usual way. We are excited to expand our pool of volunteers to other Health Care Professionals across the East of England."

Professor Mark Wilson, neurosurgeon and GoodSAM co-founder, said: "If a patient has a cardiac arrest or a traumatic head injury, it is the first few minutes after the incident that determine the outcome - life, death, or long-term brain injury. There are first aid trained people all around us but usually the first they know of a neighbour having a cardiac arrest is an ambulance appearing in their street. If they had known and started CPR a few minutes before the ambulance arrived, chances of survival can rise significantly. GoodSAM now makes this possible, connecting those with the skills to the public in their minute of need."

There is no obligation or requirement for anyone to register with the application or accept and alert. Therefore, attending a GoodSAM alert does not have any connection to your work with EEAST. If you attend a patient, you can't claim additional time off, payment, time off in lieu hours, or start your operational shift later. The GoodSAM app is a voluntary endeavour to provide CPR to patients near you until the ambulance arrives and takes over.

When an emergency call is directed to one of our emergency operations centres (control rooms) and is classified to involve cardiac arrest, details will automatically be sent through to the GoodSAM app, which will alert the nearest volunteer responder who has registered with the app within 800 meters.

If the responder is available, they can accept the alert via the GoodSAM app and make their way to the patient in need. If the volunteer responder is unable to accept the alert, it can be declined and will get diverted through to the next nearest responder. The responder will also be advised of the location of the nearest defibrillator. When a public access defibrillator is used in cardiac arrest, the overall survival rate to discharge is 58.6 per cent. The GoodSAM app uses GPS technology to alert trained first responders to nearby life-threatening emergencies.

An EEAST user guide has been put together to assist you with the app and navigating through: Download the EEAST user guide

To sign up on the GoodSam website and enter all of your details. Please make sure to have a form of ID ready to upload which evidences your registration (i.e. Work ID card, HCPC ID etc). Once you have registered this will be sent to GoodSAM or EEAST to review and approve your application.

EEAST ambulance service staff and community first responders can sign up to GoodSAM and select EEAST as their organisation - EEAST will review and approve the application.

Registered Health Care Professionals can sign up to GoodSAM and select GoodSAM as their organisation - GoodSAM will review and approve the application.

Whilst awaiting approval, get ready and download the GoodSAM Responder App onto your smart phone. Once you are approved, log into your device and you will be ready to go!

EEAST is in the process of rolling out GoodSAM into the organisation and would like to hear from you if you are interested in becoming a GoodSAM responder. Get in touch at GoodSAM@eastamb.nhs.uk

Visit the GoodSAM website for more about the app.

This development has been part-funded by the Big Lottery Fund and Nesta, as part of the Accelerating Ideas Fund and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.