How GoodSAM is helping saves lives in Wales

The Welsh Ambulance Service Trust has partnered with a life-saving app that can help people suffering a cardiac arrest get the help they need quicker.

GoodSAM is a free life-saving app that uses GPS technology to alert registered first responders to a nearby cardiac arrest so CPR can be given while an ambulance is on route.

Responders include NHS doctors, nurses, paramedics and therapists, as well as police and fire staff, first aiders and volunteers trained in CPR.

Since being first introduced in 2018, the app is now incorporated globally with a number of ambulance services and thousands of responders in Wales are already signed up.

If your job requires CPR training, you can register to become a responder for free by simply uploading your work ID.

How is the GoodSAM app used?

When someone is suffering a cardiac arrest and calls 999, WAST’s Computer Aided Dispatch system (CAD) will automatically alert three GoodSAM responders who are logged into the app and are within a 500-metre radius of the patient.

At the same time, WAST’s clinical control centre will be identifying the nearest ambulance resource to send to the emergency.

If the GoodSAM responder receives the alert and is available, they can accept via the app which will give them directions to the patient.

By arriving a few minutes before the ambulance and undertaking CPR and early defibrillation (where available) will improve a patient’s survival after suffering a cardiac arrest.

If a GoodSAM responder is not able to accept the alert, it can be declined, and the app will continue to alert the next nearest registered responders.

How does the GoodSAM app make a difference?

GoodSAM is based on the idea that if you are rarely more than 5 metres from a spider, you are probably rarely more than a few hundred metres from someone trained in basic life support.

For every minute someone who is in cardiac arrest does not receive CPR or defibrillation, their chances of survival fall by 10%.

Therefore, it is important to alert people with the right life support training skills who are in the immediate vicinity of the patient to start CPR until ambulance personnel arrive.

For more information and to sign up today, visit https://www.goodsamapp.org/