UK heart health: why Sweden has a better survival rate – guest post

The video above highlights the difference in the Scandinavian approach to heart health and the undoubted benefits

Over the past decade, there has been a significant difference between heart health in the UK and heart health in Sweden. Better resources, more doctors, and in-depth first aid training have led to less people suffering from a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in Sweden – and higher survival rates of those who do.

We’ve looked at some of the reasons behind Sweden’s leap ahead in heart health, and the lessons the UK can learn from this.

Healthcare

Sweden’s healthcare system is one of the best in the world. They spend more money on healthcare than many other country in Europe (11% of their GPD). This means they can invest in state-of-the-art technology, new cures, prevention and better medication. As well as this, they have a plentiful supply of doctors and nurses, with 3.3 doctors per 1,000 people.

The UK currently spends 9.9% of its GDP on healthcare each year. This means that there is a substantially smaller amount spent on equipment and education here compared to Sweden. We have only 2 doctors per 1,000 people.

Sudden cardiac arrests

In Sweden, 10,000 people suffer from Sudden Cardiac Arrests (SCAs) each year. Over the last 20 years, Sweden has invested so much in exceptional prevention methods that twice as many people now survive SCAs than they did 20 years ago.

There are 30,000 out-of-hospital SCAs in the UK each year. The 30-day survival rate when CPR is offered is only 8.6%.

First aid

In Sweden, 70% of people who suffer from out-of-hospital SCAs are given CPR. This is thanks to both mass CPR training and the introduction of ‘SMS Lifesavers’. In the UK, we have just introduced the GoodSAM responder community, which is very similar to the SMS lifesavers with experienced first responders signing up to be notified if someone has a cardiac arrest close by.

SMS Lifesavers is an app that makes it possible for CPR-trained volunteers to be notified when an SCA occurs in their vicinity. They are then directed to the nearest defibrillator (of which Sweden has 5,151) or to the casualty.

As well as this, 300,000 people in Sweden are trained in CPR, and mass training takes place in schools and workplaces – which is how 70% of people who suffer out-of-hospital SCAs are given CPR.

It’s a completely different picture here in the UK. The act of performing CPR is less widely taught, and only 22% of people would be confident in performing CPR on a stranger. As well as this, 35% of people in the UK believe that performing CPR on someone could make their condition worse.

What can we learn?

As you can see, both survival and prevention rates are more successful in Sweden than they are in the UK.

The amount of money the Swedes spend on medical services and their staffing of doctors has a substantial effect on the survival rates. As well as this, the difference the SMS Lifesavers make, as well at the increased training and education around CPR, cannot be underestimated. The Swedish SCA survival rate doubling in the past 20 years shows just how important these new measures are.

The UK could begin by introducing CPR lessons into schools, creating educational campaigns surrounding the fears of CPR, and investing more in CPR training for businesses. As well as this, defibshop and UK heart charities have been campaigning for more defibrillators across the whole of the UK.

Author: Emma Hammett