A group of medical experts and emergency responders on Wednesday strongly recommended the setting up of a centralized 911 Emergency Hotline for quick response to emergency situations anywhere in the country.
The physicians raised the suggested in conjunction with the observance of the “World Restart a Heart Day.
The proponents represented the Philippine Heart Association (PHA), the Philippine College of Emergency Medicine (PCEM), and the Philippine Heart Rhythm Society (PHRS). They said the Philippines needed a “high-functioning, nationwide centralized 911” to improve its cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) response services.
“Hindi pa rin talaga siya na-centralized in essence. Nagkaroon ng 911 number pero hindi pa rin nawala ang dating existing number is still not really centralized in essence. There is a 911 number but the previously existing numbers are still there,” PCEM president Richard Henry Santos said during a PHA forum.
“You can see that somehow, the delivery of services is also quite political…there is a bit of blocking or a limit to the provision of services,” he also said.
The group also urged lawmakers to pass the Emergency Medical Services System (EMSS) Act and the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Act, saying that reinforcing the country’s EMS and CPR readiness is timely, considering that many people are now traveling.
PHA Council on CPR chairman Dr. Don Robespierre Reyes said they were conducting Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) trainings in a bid to establish a CPR-Ready Philippines.
Reyes said that amid the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, the 5Cs of CPR or the “Check, Call, Cover, Compress, and Connect” still have to be applied, if necessary.
At least 1.025 million Filipinos have been trained under the PHA CPR-Ready campaign as of May 2022, the group said.