BMI Healthcare hospital to raise awareness of CPR techniques

BMI Healthcare has announced that its BMI The London Independent Hospital will be encouraging London residents to learn about hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) this month.

To coincide with the British Heart Foundation's National Heart Month, the hospital is raising awareness of the superiority of CPR to administering the kiss of life in terms of helping to stabilise heart attack sufferers.

Studies suggest that hands-only CPR increases the rate of survival among patients who have cardiac arrest or whose heart has stopped by 22 per cent.

This technique is a potentially crucial piece of knowledge, as 124,000 people suffer a heart attack in the UK each year, with one-third of these dying before they reach hospital.

Executive director Kirsty Baker at BMI The London Independent Hospital said: "We hope that our support of this campaign will help to raise awareness and understanding around the symptoms of heart attack and the quick action required to help save someone's life."

National Heart Month runs throughout February 2013 and also encompasses various fundraising activities, with pop singer Mollie King among the campaign's celebrity endorsers.