The use of AEDs by police officers in the City of London

The Guidelines 2000 for cardiopulmonary resuscitation recommend shock deliv ery to victims in ventricular fibrillation within 5 min of call receipt by the Emergency Medical Services. In an effort to achieve this goal, in some parts of the United States, police officers have been trained to use automa ted external defibrillators (AEDs). We undertook a 3-year pilot evaluation of the use of AEDs by City of London police (CPOL) officers. Over a period of 3 years, 147 CPOL officers were trained in the use of an AED. Four AEDs were placed on rapid response vehicles covering the City of London. An over all call-response interval target was set at 8 min. The CPOL attended 1103 (90%) of the total of 1232 calls to which they were summoned. The mean inte rval between the first call received and arrival of the CPOL on scene was 8 .9 +/-4.0 min. The CPOL applied AEDs to 25 victims, 13 of whom were initial ly in ventricular fibrillation; at least one shock was delivered to all 13. The interval between call reception and delivery of the first shock was 5. 5 +/-2.5 min. The mean interval between switching on the AED and delivery o f the first shock was 24 +/- 12 s. Two (15%) of these victims survived to h ospital discharge. This study has confirmed the feasibility of training pol ice officers in the UK to use AEDs as first responders. The call received t o arrival on scene interval should be reduced by improvements in communicat ion between LAS and CPOL. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.