Health professionals receive training on how to deal with cardiac arrest |16 July 2019
A group of 60 health care workers are participating in a 10-day specialised training in cardiac life support from July 15-25 at the Diagnostic Centre at the Seychelles Hospital.
The health professionals – who include doctors, nurses and allied health professionals – are to be trained in basic life support (BSL) and advance cardiac life support (ACLS) by a team of five experts, led by Dr Vanita Mittal, from the Max Institute of Medical Excellence based in India.
It has been sponsored by BitMEX, an international business company registered in Seychelles, and facilitated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
Upon completion of the training, the participants will be certified as having followed one of the highest internationally-ranked training for cardiopulmonary resuscitation recognised by the American Heart Association.
It is expected that following the training, cardiac arrest will be recognised early and prompting rapid activation of trained responders and timely initiation of cardiac and pulmonary support.
Moreover ten among the locally trained health professionals will become certified instructors, a move which will allow for the establishment of Seychelles’ own American Heart Association centre.
This centre will then be able to offer the same training in out of hospital settings which will benefit the police, fire and rescue services, tourism sector and more.
The training was officially launched yesterday during a ceremony attended by the Minister for Health Jean-Paul Adam, chief executive of the Health Care Agency (HCA) Dr Danny Louange, chief executive of the FSA and representatives from BitMEX.
“We are honoured to start having basic life support and advance cardiac life support providers and trainers so that we can have a centre where we can train all of our healthcare workers, especially for basic life support, and then we would also train those that are eligible to take the advanced level,” Dr Louange stated in his opening address.
“It is important for the Health Care Agency and the country at large, because basic life support saves lives, especially when we have all health workers trained and certified and re-certified when necessary.”
He further remarked that the training would be extended outside of the health care environment to other key partners in the country.
This, he continued, will improve quality of service delivered as well as improve the country’s health indicators.
Minister Adam also intervened noting that the training should not only be about creating a group of trained responders but also about building a self-sustaining system which can be infused into the current health system.
Juliette Ally, who spoke on behalf of BitMEX, stated that the company’s founders – Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed – admire the work of health professionals to improve the world around them.
It is for this reason that the cryptocurrency trading platform had recently invested in the donation of two cardiac ambulances to the Ministry of Health and, now, the BLS and ACLS training.
The ceremony concluded with a demonstration of basic life support skills that could save someone who is suffering a heart attack.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and stroke ranks second globally which is why the American Heart Association advocated for early care for victims.