National Resuscitation Council and National First Aid Council to merge

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ST VIDEO: FABIAN KOH

SINGAPORE - Two national agencies aimed at equipping citizens with first aid skills will merge in April to avoid duplicating efforts.

The National Resuscitation Council (NRC) and National First Aid Council (NFAC) will form the National Resuscitation and First Aid Council from April 1, NRC chairman Prof essor Venkataraman Anantharaman said on Sunday (Feb 4).

He was speaking at the seventh National Life Saving Day event held at the Sports Hub OCBC Square.

Prof Anantharaman said the merger follows a proposal to the Ministry of Health to combine the two organisations "some years ago" to "cut duplication of efforts".

He added that the Ministry of Healthy will provide more details at a later date.

"First aid is a core skill which every citizen should be able to deliver to someone in need," he said, adding that the eventual aim is to have one trained first aider in every household.

He shared that last year, about 180,000 people were trained and certified in CPR, up from about 32,000 in 2008.

The theme for this year's National Life Saving Day, which aims to raise awareness about cardiac arrest, injuries and teaching people CPR and basic first aid skills, was "Sports safety, saving lives".

Prof Anantharaman explained that sport was chosen as the focus because while the number of cases of CPR done by bystanders has risen from 20 per cent in the early part of the century to just over 50 per cent today, "this has not been followed with a similar increase in first aid for injuries".

The rate of bystander first aid is 15 per cent.

Guest of honour Ong Ye Kung taking a wefie with attendees at the National Life Saving Day event held at the Sports Hub OCBC Square on Feb 4, 2018. ST PHOTO: FABIAN KOH

Guest of honour Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) and Second Minister for Defence, commended efforts to "foster a culture of sports safety".

He shared about how as a sportsman in his youth, he would continue playing or training even while injured. "Today when I look at our younger kids going into sports, they are so well taken care of. They know just the right things, like physiotherapy, to make sure most injuries don't become long-term chronic problems," said Mr Ong.

At the National Life Saving Day event, 600 people were trained in CPR over two sessions.

Lift engineer Kwang Wei Qiang, 28, who attended the morning session with his neighbour, said: "This is an important life skill. It is also not very difficult to learn, because they (the trainers) break it down into easy steps."

Dr Peck Thian Guan, 55, was a recipient of the Survivor Award after performing CPR on 65-year-old retiree Song Sah Lay when he collapsed with a cardiac arrest during a game of badminton.

Dr Peck, director of the Office of Safety, Health and Environment at the National University of Singapore (NUS), had learned CPR 10 years earlier.

He said: "Handling a real person and a mannequin are very different. Mr Song's eyes were rolled back and he was in fits. No words can describe the feeling. It is very overwhelming when there's a life before you that can be lost if you don't do your part."

Mr Song, who has since quit smoking, said: "He (Dr Peck) is a gift sent down from heaven to save me. I am very thankful."

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