Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House notes:

(1) that October has been designated Shoctober by the Cardiac Arrest Survival Foundation;

(2) that Australian estimates of those dying from sudden cardiac arrest range from 23,000 to 33,000;

(3) that prompt defibrillation increases the probability of survival from cardiac arrest;

(4) that delayed use of defibrillators increases the probability that the victim will die;

(5) that defibrillator deployment guidelines have been developed by the Automated External Defibrillator Deployment Registry after significant consultation;

(6) the commendable staff training and defibrillator placement by Sydney Trains;

(7) that wider availability of defibrillators is desirable; and

(8) that there have been calls that all Commonwealth funded constructions valued over $3 million should have defibrillators and conform to the new Defibrillation Guidelines 1410 (v 1.3).

I want to congratulate Reno Aprile, the director of Cardiac Arrest Survival Foundation; Dr Sue Craig for her articles in the Journal of Health, Safety and Environment; Australian rugby great Nick Farr-Jones; Sydney commentator Alan Jones; and Group Captain Graeme Peel, who has constructed guidelines around this issue. I guess the intervention of Jones and Nick Farr-Jones is to do with the fact that Australian rugby union coach Bob Dwyer is a survivor.

This is of great relevance when it is estimated that 23,000 to 33,000 Australians die each year from cardiac arrest. In toto, that is more than breast cancer, shootings and road crashes. When this organisation tried to put Shoctober on the map, it did so in the context of a very crowded concern with health issues. I know that when I first arrived here in this parliament there were no interest groups to do with any diseases or health problems. Now I think our weeks are crowded, with every second MP having a health group that they are devoted to.

It is important that we try to get this issue on the agenda. It is worth noting that, when defibrillators are utilised quite swiftly, they can have a very large impact. If they are utilised within four minutes, there is a 60 per cent survival rate. However, unfortunately, if it is 10 minutes your chance is about zero. This is of course accompanied by the decline in ambulance response times, which has worsened the problem.

There are, however, some groups that are leading on this front. The Sydney rail network is one of them. Fourteen people have survived because it has acted very strongly for a significant period of time in making sure that defibrillators are provided on many Sydney railway stations and, more particularly, that people are actually trained to utilise them and that they are actually in functioning order. It has been estimated that one-fifth of defibrillators around the place are not in functioning order. This leads to the need for monitoring to make sure that when they are used they are actually in working order.

In the long term, we probably have to look at trying to make defibrillators mandatory in significant government buildings. President Clinton in the United States accomplished that in 2000. One of the long-term aims of the Cardiac Arrest Survival Foundation is that it be mandatory that government building constructions valued at over $3 million have a defibrillator on site. They are campaigning for the aforementioned guidelines to be adhered to in all government buildings and facilities.

The event this year attracted significant numbers of students from St Aloysius College on Sydney Harbour and a significant interest from the Ambulance Service of New South Wales and other emergency services. This indicates that people who are at the forefront of these issues feel that there is some value in raising awareness of them.

It has been estimated that when there is third-party monitoring of AED systems there is a failure rate of virtually zero. Human-monitored systems are frequently poorly maintained, with only half of workplaces monitoring theirs weekly. For a workplace with, say, 50 people the annual cost of an electronically monitored defibrillator is $100 or 27c per person per day. I do not think this is too big an ask of the Australian people and Australian governments, state and federal, to try to minimise deaths in the range of 20,000 to 30,000 per year. It is something we probably never really think about, but that is a huge number. I commend this motion to the House, and I thank the member for Reid for seconding it.

Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion moved by the member for Werriwa on Defibrillator Awareness Month, 'Shoctober'. This is a very important topic and I commend the member for Werriwa for showing the initiative to raise it in this place. I am very proud to have co-signed the motion with him so that it can be discussed. Shoctober is a great initiative by the Cardiac Arrest Survival Foundation and is recognised as Defibrillator Awareness Month. 'Improving knowledge and saving lives' is the quote they use, and it is a great quote.

I would like to start by congratulating the foundation and everyone involved in Shoctober. Not only does the organisation do great work this month; it does it all year round. But this month is particularly important because it raises awareness of sudden cardiac arrest. When the member for Werriwa came to me and asked whether I would co-sponsor this motion it forced me to go and have a look at this issue. Thank God, I do not have a personal experience with this. But what we found—and you heard the member for Werriwa say it—is that it kills between 23,000 and 33,000 Australians a year, each and every year, and can strike people of any age. Fortunately, a sudden cardiac arrest is treatable through defibrillation if done in time. However, the chance of survival decreases 10 per cent with every minute that passes without this treatment. This is why the message of Shoctober is so important. Through encouraging workplaces and public areas to have defibrillators easily accessible, we can work to increase the survival rates for people who suffer a sudden cardiac arrest.

It was estimated by the late Dr Jeff Wassertheil that readily available and functioning defibrillators could potentially save up to 25 per cent of those lives lost. That is a substantial difference. The evidence of the benefits of increased defibrillator availability is readily available. In most workplaces, less than five per cent of victims survive a cardiac arrest incident. In contrast, organisations such as Sydney Trains, which has introduced automatic external defibrillators at major stations and trained staff in their use, has achieved survival rates between 30 and 50 per cent. Less than five per cent survive if you do not have it; 30 to 50 per cent survive if you have it and are trained in it. That is a massive difference. In fact, independent research published this month has found that 14 lives were saved over three years, thanks to the initiative shown by Sydney Trains. This shows you the importance of having readily accessible defibrillators in an emergency, and the importance of having staff who are correctly trained in their use.

The Cardiac Arrest Survival Foundation has made recommendations to government on how to progress in this space, and we as legislators should continue to listen and collaborate on ways to minimise the fatalities we continue to see in this area. This is a health risk that affects so many Australians every year, not just the 23,000 to 33,000 that die but also their families—and, as I mentioned, there but for the grace of God go many of us. Whether it is a husband, wife, mother, father, daughter or grand-daughter, whoever it may be, we need to do more in this space so that the chances of survival of those 23,000 to 33,000 are maximised at all costs.

I note that the new Australian defibrillator deployment guidelines were released earlier this month by the Automated External Defibrillator Deployment Registry—that is one hell of a mouthful. The guidelines provide technical specifications for defibrillators, where and how they are to be installed, instructions for monitoring and maintenance as well as stipulation of training standards. A point that was highlighted by the AEDDR—it saves me from saying it again—when releasing these new guidelines was the importance of proper monitoring and maintenance of defibrillators once installed. All too often, when an urgent need arises for these devices, they are found faulty or unusable for a variety of reasons. US research has shown that one in five unmonitored defibrillators are defective, and the statistics I gave you earlier tell you how tragic that can be: it reduces the survival rate to five per cent, down from the 30 to 50 per cent when they are monitored right. While compliance with these guidelines is voluntary, I would encourage workplace managers to review their policies in light of these guidelines, and I look forward to continuing the discussion within the government and with those in opposition.

Once again, I would like to congratulate all involved in Defibrillator Awareness Month, or Shoctober, and the Cardiac Arrest Survival Foundation on both this initiative and their advocacy work, and my good friend the member for Werriwa on raising it. It is a pleasure to speak on it. I just hope that all the people we know never have the need for one. Thank you.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion by the member for Werriwa and the member for Reid. Shoctober, Defibrillator Awareness Month, is an important issue and it is one that is close to the hearts of my community, particularly Mr Andrew White, who is from Gisborne in McEwen. Andrew is a highly experienced Victorian paramedic and founded the Defib Your Club, For Life! following the deaths of several young athletes at sporting events around Victoria, particularly that of Stephen Buckman, a 19-year-old footballer who collapsed and died of sudden cardiac arrest while at training at Rupertswood football club in May 2010. This initiative is simple: to establish a pathway that leads to educating communities on the subject of sudden cardiac arrest and demonstrate how one can easily and safely use an automatic external defibrillator in an effort to save a life.

Since the program's inception two years ago, DYCFL! has installed almost 2,000 defibrillators in community organisations, sporting clubs and local businesses. With this growth, DYCFL! will be able to further concentrate on its advocacy work within the community and with local, state and federal governments to eventually create the relevant legislative changes to make AEDs legally required in locations such as sporting clubs, organisations, workplaces, councils and the like.

In Victoria, Daniel Andrews—an ex-health minister himself—knows the value of having access to defibrillators locally and how during cardiac arrest the chance of survival decreases by 10 per cent for every minute without defibrillation. That is why our community strongly supported Daniel's announcement that an Andrews Labor government will provide 1,000 defibrillators to Victorian sporting clubs and facilities to improve survival rates for people who enter cardiac arrest. Labor's plan will make sure that a defibrillator is near so that action can be taken sooner. The question now on everybody's lips is will another former health minister, and now leader, see the value in having defibrillators available to communities right across the nation to help save lives? Calling 000 for an ambulance and early use of defibrillators, combined with CPR, are the key steps to survival. Defibrillators have been responsible for saving thousands of lives across the country, and more can be done.

Sudden cardiac arrest is more common than you would think. In fact, each year 5,000 Victorians go into sudden cardiac arrest while not in hospital—that is 14 people every day—and around 20 per cent of these happen in public places. Defibrillators can work on people of all ages. They can provide voice prompts and simple instructions for operators on how they should be used and advice on when to perform CPR. The placement of defibrillators in accessible public places is supported by the Heart Foundation, St John's Ambulance Australia, the Australian Resuscitation Council and Sports Medicine Australia. Local branches of the Men's Shed Association—a program that enables men to participate in their community and learn about men's health and wellbeing—have been applying every year for government funding to refurbish their sheds and include defibrillators.

Having access to defibrillators is becoming more important across our community. As a founding member of Australia's first community emergency response team, I learnt quickly the need for early defibrillation. CERTs consist of ambulance volunteers who function as first responders within communities where the nearest ambulance branches are at a distance. Whenever CERTs are dispatched to a job an ambulance is also dispatched. They provide emergency care until an ambulance arrives. We spent many weeks being trained in life support, and held our weekly training and maintenance with the support of Ambulance Victoria paramedics. Our defibrillation batteries were checked every 12 hours and replaced to ensure that they were in good working condition. The CERT team program also trained local community members to be better prepared to respond to emergency situations.

The chain-of-survival process can help save the lives of people suffering from cardiac arrest. These steps include recognising cardiac arrest early, early access to emergency care, early CPR and defibrillation and early advance care, such as paramedics and hospitals. The chain of survival starts with our community. With the increase of automated external defibrillators available in our community, we have to ensure that people know how easy they are to use. That is why it is important, as part as Shoctober, that we get together and support introducing defibrillators into more businesses and community groups so that we will be able to save more lives. Shoctober, an Andrews Labor government and Defib Your Club, for Life! will mean that people having sudden cardiac arrest will have a greater chance of survival in our communities.

A government member: A Daniels Labor government!

It is actually important. You should listen for once, boy. I urge the government to support this Shoctober motion and ensure that where a defibrillator is available, people can be assured that it is in good working condition.

Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. It gives me great—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Let the member for Lyons start, please.

Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise to speak on this motion. I commend the member for Werriwa, and also the member for Reid for seconding the motion. I come to speak on this motion from personal experience. I was 42 years old when I had a myocardial infarction. For those who are not aware, effectively it was plaque blocking one of the arteries in my heart. That was eight years ago. In some respects it was probably the best thing that had ever happened to me. It was a wake up call. I could tick off so many of the risk factors. I have smoked for much of my life. I had a family history. I was doing too much of this and not enough of that. But it was eight years ago and now I feel as good as I have ever felt.

I would like to go through my experience, because it was quite a personal experience. I woke up on a Saturday morning. It was a medal stroke day at my golf club, where I used to play golf. They always say, beware the injured golfer! As it happens—the back tees and everything else—off a handicap of 10; I had net 72. I did not win the medal stroke that day, but I played there. All day I felt nauseous. I felt nauseous. Later that evening I went to my sister's place for dinner at Exeter down on the West Tamar. It was a family gathering. I had to excuse myself from the dinner table because what had been a nauseous ache all day became quite an acute pain across the top of my stomach. I went outside. I stood next to the compost bin for about 20 minutes thinking I was going to be ill.

I came back inside and my wife, who is a pharmacist, and my sister, who is a nurse at the emergency department of the Royal Hobart Hospital, who happened to be there that night, said I looked grey. They both said, 'I think you're having a heart attack.' I sat down. Whilst the ambulance was coming—and all credit to the ambulance for coming very quickly—I got the classic tingle in my left arm and so forth. The ambulance driver, to his credit, arrived, but he thought that I had some form of diarrhoea. It was only on my sister and my wife's insistence that I walked to the ambulance and he took my blood pressure, which then was 220 over 140, and that is when he realised that there might be something going on.

I was taken in to the Launceston General Hospital very efficiently. It was a Saturday. Whilst I was misdiagnosed on arrival, I was stabilised and I was put in intensive care. I was quite lucid and so forth. On Monday morning, Dr Brian Herman, cardiologist, put in two stents, which is a very simple operation. You remain awake. They come up through the artery in your groin. I had two stents placed in the central artery in my heart. It was quite interesting because the two other arteries were quite clean—they were about 15 per cent blocked, which is about normal for somebody my age—but my central artery was completely blocked.

I want to thank all the staff at the Launceston General Hospital. I want to thank my cardiologist, Brian Herman. He does outstanding work. I want to thank my general practitioner, Frank Brunacci, who lives in my electorate at Longford. I want to thank also Dr Sindhu, who I have seen in more recent times.

I also want to reflect that I was out of hospital on the Thursday. That was a Saturday, and I had had my stents put in on the Monday. I was out of hospital on the Thursday. I went back to work on the following Monday, and it was the worst thing I could have done. I took myself home on Monday night and I did not go back for a month, and that was probably the best thing I ever did. I felt fine, but it was quite a shock to my system. It was probably three months later that I started to feel like myself again.

I just say that this is really important. Defibrillator Awareness Month and the Cardiac Arrest Survival Foundation: more power to them. Twenty-three thousand to 33,000 people die each year from sudden cardiac arrest. Beware that the symptoms are not always classic. Beware that the symptoms for women are often quite different to those of men. In my case, I felt nothing other than a little unwell. It manifested itself into something that I, in hindsight now, am very grateful happened to me, because we do a little bit more of that and a little bit less of this. I commend the member for Werriwa for this motion today.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to commence my contribution to this debate by congratulating the member for Werriwa for bringing this to the parliament. I know how passionate he is about this issue. I would also like to congratulate for their contribution to this debate the previous speakers, the member for McEwen, the member for Reid and the member for Lyons, who shared with us here in the parliament his personal experience. From listening to him, you realise just how common heart attacks can be.

October has been designated as Shoctober by the Cardiac Arrest Survival Foundation. I think it is important to look at the issue of heart attack, how prevalent it is and what the risk factors are and at actions that Australians can take to lower their risk factors. Obviously, the most common risk factors are smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, poor diet, lack of physical activity and being overweight. Age can also be a contributing factor, but age is not always a contributing factor, as we have heard here in the House this morning. In addition, ethnic background can be a factor. It is unfortunate that our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are much more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease than other Australians.

I think it is really important that people understand that heart attacks can happen to anyone at any time and that by having a combination of these risk factors you increase the likelihood that you will have a heart attack. The heart attack is known as a silent killer. There are no obvious symptoms until it strikes. You may not even know that you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Sometimes a heart attack will be the first sign that anything is wrong, as we have heard this morning. This is why it is important to know what chance a person has of having a heart attack. I would encourage all Australians to be aware of their heart health, particularly women. As the member for Lyons mentioned, the symptoms and signs of heart attack in women are very different to those in men. It is really something that can sneak up on people.

29 September was World Heart Day. At that time, it was highlighted just how many people in Australia die from heart attacks. There are 16,000 premature deaths that occur every year because of the fact that people are inactive, and inactivity in itself leads to cardiovascular disease. When we look at heart health, over 1.1 million Australians aged 30 to 65 have a high chance of heart attack or stroke, over 3.5 million Australians aged 45 and over have high cholesterol, 2.3 million Australians over 45 have high blood pressure and two in three Australians have more than one risk factor of having a heart attack or stroke.

This particular issue is really important. We have a friends of heart and stroke group in the parliament. The member for Werriwa has already approached me about raising this issue with that group. It is imperative that defibrillators be available and ready because of the sudden nature of heart attack. A defibrillator being available could mean the difference between life and death. I commend Sydney Trains and encourage more organisations to have defibrillators readily available and for the Commonwealth government to fund that. (Time expired)

Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am really pleased to be able to stand here today in support of the motion and to congratulate everybody involved with Shoctober, in particular the Cardiac Arrest Survival Foundation for their work with Defibrillator Awareness Month. One of the reasons I have chosen to speak on this topic today is that I am living proof of somebody who is only here today because of an automatic external defibrillator. As some other members have spoken about earlier, cardiac arrest can hit in the most unusual circumstances—in my case, as a 26-year-old playing basketball, feeling quite fit and healthy and, quite frankly, invincible. After suffering a cardiac arrest on the basketball court and not breathing for seven minutes, I am only standing here today because a paramedic was deployed very quickly and was able to restart my heart. That paramedic's name is Andrew Burns. This is the first time in parliament I have been able to thank him. Without him and his expertise, I would not be standing here today.

The more important and bigger issue is how we can ensure AEDs are in every community organisation and every workplace to give the best chance possible to those people who will inevitably suffer cardiac arrest at times that are completely unexpected. That is why I want to lend my support to the Cardiac Arrest Survival Foundation and all the work that they have done with Shoctober. I also think there is a big role to play for government here and I am certainly advocating from the government's side. I would like to think we can do it in a bipartisan fashion, to see if we can encourage more government funding to get automated external defibrillators in as many community organisations as possible.

As somebody who is a survivor and who is only alive because of an AED I get lots of stories that come to my office from people who are the great examples. They are like me and have gone on to live very happy and successful lives. Unfortunately, I also get the tragic stories as well. What is very common, and what I hear a lot, is of the 18, 19, 20, 21 year old playing sport of some description, just like I was, thinking they were healthy and invincible and the tragedy befalls their families when they die on a football field, or a cricket field, or out running or in some form of exercise. Just how tragic it is for those families breaks my heart. That is why it is incumbent on all political parties to work out ways, in a bipartisan way, so that we can get even more funding and even more support for every organisation to have an AED on the wall. Every time I walk into a clubhouse—and pardon the pun—it warms my heart when I see the AED sitting on the wall, because I do appreciate that without that sitting there so many young people, in particular, would be in danger.

There is a strong commitment from me and all of my colleagues to ensure that we make some heavy strides in this direction over the next two years. I commend state governments who are seeking to do the same thing. In my home state of Victoria both the government and the opposition certainly do have programs to fund AEDs for various community groups. I think there is a role there for the federal government to leverage that, to make it even bigger and to ensure that, in particular, every workplace has one—importantly, not only that every workplace has an AED but that they have somebody at all times who is trained to use it. It is something that is so simple and it is the difference, literally, between life and death for so many people.

As far as I am concerned it is a very small cost to government for benefits that are so important for our society and which ultimately have economic benefits down the track, because—as I am proof positive—you can go on to live a very active, busy and productive life. I commend the motion and I thank speakers for doing so in a bipartisan fashion.

Debate adjourned.