The Ministry of Health and Welfare has previewed changes to regulations that would require more automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to be installed in public places including transportation hubs, shopping malls, schools, police stations and military barracks.
A preview of the policy was published in the online version of the Executive Yuan Gazzette on Thursday last week.
AEDs can be operated by people with minimal first-aid training, making them effective life-saving tools for public places, experts say.
Photo: CNA
Defibrillation can save a person having a heart attack 90 percent of the time if applied within a minute of the heart stopping, but every minute of delay reduces the chances of survival by 7 to 10 percent.
Since 2013, the ministry has stipulated that AEDs must be installed in government offices, transit hubs, and public and commercial venues that exceed a certain number of daily visitors or building occupancy figure, as well as senior-high schools and colleges.
The proposed AED regulations would lower the “must-equip” threshold from 3,000 visitors per day to 1,000 visitors per day for public places, government offices and events, and from 250 rooms to 100 rooms for hotels and guest houses.
The amended guidelines would require all secondary education and higher learning institutions to have the devices on their premises, and no exemptions would be made for religious events.
Department of Medical Affairs Director-General Liu Yueh-ping (劉越萍) said the amended guidelines mean that 14,000 places in Taiwan would be equipped with AEDs, up from 12,500 at present.
The policy could be implemented as early as September, she added.
Concurrently, the ministry has previewed changes to the guidelines for first-aid kits in public places that would include regularly scheduled maintenance checks on AED batteries and other perishable components, she said.
AEDs were used 541 times, resulting in 198 successful resuscitations in Taiwan between 2013 and 2018, while the utilization rate was 5 percent overall, a Control Yuan report published in 2020 found.
Taiwan Society of Emergency Medicine president Huang Chi-jen (黃集仁) said the cost-benefit analysis by the Control Yuan is not necessarily an appropriate measure for the value of a life-saving device.
“Saving people from heart attacks is a struggle against time and AEDs provide the timely treatment needed to prevent the loss of life or long-term function,” he said.
Insufficient public education on AED use and the COVID-19 pandemic, which made Taiwanese wary of being in physical contact with visibly ill strangers, are to blame for the devices’ low utilization rate, he said.
The cardiopulmonary resuscitation classes being offered at government agencies and businesses vary in length from 90 minutes to 220 minutes, resulting in a loss of paid hours that can be daunting to employers, he said.
Abbreviating the courses might encourage more people to sign up and some experts believe that 50 minutes is enough training for most incidents, he said, adding that lessons could also be taught to sixth-grade students and up at public schools.
Another problem that might have negatively affected public defibrillator utilization is the low installation density compared with some countries that have as many as one AED every 500m on a major road, he said.
Taiwan Association of Public Access Defibrillation president Hsu Chen-yu (徐震宇) said several incidents have occurred where AEDs failed to work because of maintenance issues, including dead batteries and expired pads.
The association has since 2020 lead an industry-wide effort to integrate manufacturers, vendors, and logistics and technical support service providers to improve post-installation maintenance, he said.
The measures have brought about observable improvements, he added.
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