SINGAPORE – When Mr Lukas Ho was 16 years old in 2019, he saved an elderly woman who was suffering a cardiac arrest after he was alerted to the emergency by the Singapore Civil Defence Force’s (SCDF) myResponder mobile app.

Mr Ho said he knew what to do as his secondary school taught students first aid and how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Currently, first responders in the SCDF’s Community Emergency Preparedness Programme (CEPP) undergo a three-tiered training course.

But by the last quarter of this year, SCDF will shorten it to a two-parter to attract more people to become first responders to help others during emergencies.

At the SCDF Workplan seminar on July 31, Minister for Home Affairs K. Shanmugam said the CEPP, first launched in 2016, will be streamlined to the new Responders Plus Programme (RPP). 

He said: “We are going to try and make our programmes even more accessible to the public to encourage more people to pick up lifesaving skills and play a part during emergencies.”

CEPP, comprising one e-learning and two hands-on segments, teaches participants fire safety and core life-saving skills at SCDF’s division headquarters.

More than 170,000 people have attended the programme since 2016. 

Many of the upcoming RPP’s training sessions will be online, and the in-person segment will be shortened from eight hours to four hours, said Mr Shanmugam. 

Singapore is aiming to become a nation of lifesavers.

Mr Ho is one of more than 142,000 registered community first responders (CFRs) on the myResponder app. Since 2019, he said he has responded to around 17 cases of cardiac arrest or fire incidents. 

Now 20, the full-time national serviceman was given the Minister for Home Affairs National Day Awards for Public Spiritedness on Aug 4 after helping to extinguish a fire in Tampines.

He said: “The first time I responded in 2019 was to help the woman who was suffering from cardiac arrest. It was very scary as there was nobody around. She looked to be in her 80s, had vomit in her mouth, and had stopped breathing.”

Her skin had turned a shade of purple by the time he arrived, he added. 

He said: “Even though I was scared, I immediately performed CPR on her.”

An SCDF spokesman said the training provided by RPP will be more focused, giving participants greater confidence to respond to emergencies.

RPP participants will focus on how to perform CPR, use the automated external defibrillator, learn basic first aid and firefighting techniques. 

The spokesman added: “The updated approach emphasises self-directed learning through the online component, allowing individuals to tailor their learning experience to their unique needs and pace.”

Last year, ST reported that SCDF was targeting to recruit around one million CFRs with the myResponder app.

Since 2018, CFRs have responded to more than 7,000 cardiac arrest cases and more than 5,000 fires. 

Ms Wendy Hong, 39, who is registered on the myResponder app, also received an award recipient for public spiritedness at the Aug 4 event.

She was on a lunch break near Raffles Place in November when she rushed to help a tourist who suffered a cardiac arrest.

Ms Hong, who learnt lifesaving skills through her company, said the man was already unconscious, but she managed to use CPR to get his pulse back.

The administrative worker said: “I told my colleagues to pick up these skills because when the time comes, they can help.

“Many of them asked if I was scared to act at the time. But honestly, I just wanted to keep the man alive.”