Skip to main content

Harefield Heart Live encourages teamwork in heart attack response

Wayne Hurst (matron in cardiothoracic surgery) and Sarah Chorbachi (practive facilitator in cardiology) showing Kajal, Melissa and Monty from Rickmansworth School some CPR essentials Harefield Heart Live 2017 attracted more than 200 staff, patients and members of the public in October. 

The two-day event, which launched in 2007, involves sharing best practice in heart attack management with professionals, and gives patients and the public the chance to learn about CPR essentials. 

Professionals, including doctors, nurses and paramedics, learned about the latest techniques and treatments in heart attack management, including a live simulation exercise, panel discussions and lectures. 

"The real ethos of this event is around teamwork - how those in the field, such as ambulance staff, work with the team in the heart attack centre."

Dr Miles Dalby

Patients and public were given the chance to learn how the Trust trains and develops its expert medical staff, and to learn and practice the CPR essentials that could one day help them save a life. 

The Trust team demonstrated plans for a 'ready to resuscitate' booth and app, which will teach basic resuscitation, and 70 students from 11 local schools played the part of a giant focus group to give feedback on the plans. 

Consultant cardiologist Dr Miles Dalby, who runs Harefield Heart Live, said: "The real ethos of this event is around teamwork - how those in the field, such as ambulance staff, work with the team in the heart attack centre. We've expanded it over the years to include subjects such as post-heart attack and rehabilitation care, and most recently resuscitation in the general public. 

"When most patients have a heart attack, their first contact is not with one of our specialists or even an ambulance crew, it is with a member of their family or a stranger in a public place. If that person can do some CPR in those first moments, the person's chances of survival are increased." 


< New heart surgeon joins Trust 

Our specialist lung services in 2018 >