Lifesaving equipment donated to Worthing and St Richard’s Hospitals

Resuscitation specialist staff at the hospitals have expressed thanks to the Friends charities for funding sophisticated automated chest compression equipment which can deliver lifesaving CPR to patients in cardiac arrest.

The equipment will help staff to care for Covid-19 patients who suffer cardiac arrest.

The donations were assisted by generous support from Sussex Masonic Charitable Foundation, who gave Sussex for Sussex Awards of £5,000 each to the Friends of Chichester Hospitals and Friends of Worthing Hospital to enable them to support staff when the pandemic crisis began this spring.

The grants have helped the two long-established Friends’ charities to provide a £9,000 LUCAS CPR machine for each hospital. The equipment makes a huge difference for staff by ensuring CPR can be given continuously for a long period until the patient is stabilised, with less strain on staff and reduced infection risk.

Staff performing manual CPR while wearing full PPE become exhausted, and a team is needed to maintain the life-saving procedure.

Jane Ramage, chairman of Friends of Chichester Hospitals, said: “This is a tremendously thoughtful donation – Sussex Masonic Charitable Foundation responded immediately the pandemic broke out, and swiftly offered help to provide equipment which would help staff deal with the challenge of an unprecedented pandemic.”

Chairman of Friends of Worthing Hospitals Janet Webber added: “We are very pleased to have been able to provide this lifesaving equipment which is of such benefit to staff and patients, and very grateful to Sussex for Sussex fund for such generous support.”

David Bowen, lead resuscitation practitioner for Western Sussex Hospitals, explained: “This equipment provides uninterrupted, consistent compressions so takes stress away from staff and makes it easier for clinicians to focus on the patient and how to reverse the cause of their cardiac arrest LUCAS is a perfect solution for this as it replaces some staff and completely removes the physical effort from manual chest compressions.”