Life-saving treatment hits London streets
Patients who suffer a cardiac arrest can now be treated by a pioneering life-saving machine on the streets of London before being taken to hospital.
Known as the Endovascular Cardiac Arrest Team (ECAT), the new service brings our extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) service directly to patients at the scene. ECMO is a life support machine that temporarily replaces the function of the lungs or heart, buying critical time for patients who do not respond to standard resuscitation.
Thanks to this new service, the ECAT team can be dispatched by helicopter or rapid response car to patients across London, providing advanced cardiac care to patients before they are taken to Barts Hearts Centre which is located at St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
Dr. Andrew Wragg, medical director at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, said: “We’re really proud to be part of this important partnership and to play a role in improving outcomes for cardiac arrest patients across London.
“The ECAT team forms a crucial link in the chain – acting as a bridge between first responders and specialist in-hospital care.
“By the time a patient reaches us at Barts Heart Centre, they’ve already been given the best possible chance. We hope the lessons from this pioneering service can be shared more widely to benefit patients across the UK.”
This is the first time ECMO has been taken outside a hospital setting and has been set up thanks to a collaboration between Barts Health NHS Trust, London’s Air Ambulance Charity and London Ambulance Service. The service is funded through the support of Barts Charity, The Cranbrook Foundation, Geoff & Fiona Squire Foundation, Jude Morris Innovation and Development Fund, and Getinge.
Dr. Tom Hurst, Medical Director for London’s Air Ambulance Charity, added: “This is a collaboration focused on one thing – creating an opportunity for survival where it has never been before.
“It represents a hugely exciting step in pre-hospital and resuscitation medicine in the UK, and we couldn’t do it without our partners at Barts Health and the London Ambulance Service.”
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