Prehospital emergency medical assistance saves lives

The challenge

In cardiac arrest, every minute without defibrillation cuts the chance of survival by roughly 10%

The ambulance service is the front line of the health system: it answers 112 calls around the clock and is the link on which a patient’s survival depends, where time decides everything. Timely defibrillation in cardiac arrest, early restoration of vital functions in major trauma, rapid transport to the right ward — all of it depends on the transport resource available.

The fleet numbers 435 ambulances in the Republic of Moldova and 76 in Iași County. At any given moment, though, only about 93% and 95% respectively are operational — the rest are in repair, worn out. The benchmark the programme works to is one stretcher-equipped ambulance per roughly 5,000 inhabitants.

Objectives

Three strands, one stake: the first minutes

1. Access to quality services. Training specialist ambulance staff to provide emergency assistance and consultations at home, so as to reduce suffering and raise the survival chances of patients who call 112.

2. System resilience. Renewing the type B ambulance fleet, for assisted and unassisted medical transport, by replacing heavily worn vehicles already proposed for scrapping.

3. First aid given by bystanders. Raising the survival chances of people suffering cardio-respiratory arrest, through automated external defibrillators installed in crowded areas — usable by someone with no medical training, until the ambulance arrives.

The project sits under the “Social Development across Borders” priority, specific objective 2.2: ensuring equal access to health care and fostering the resilience of health systems, including primary care.

What the defibrillators are really for

A defibrillator helps only if someone knows, at three in the morning, that it is two hundred metres away

A device mounted on a wall saves nobody by its mere presence. In cardio-respiratory arrest, the chance of survival falls by roughly ten per cent for every minute that passes without defibrillation, and an emergency crew, however well positioned, needs several minutes to arrive. That interval — between the 112 call and the ambulance pulling up — is exactly what the defibrillator component of the project sets out to cover.

This is why the 90 devices are conceived not as isolated objects but as a network. And a network needs three things the region has not had until now:

The 20 information sessions for schoolchildren, in activity 5, close the circle. A defibrillator network works only to the extent that the people around it know the device is there, know exactly where, and know it can be taken off the wall without fear of getting it wrong. The pupils trained today are tomorrow’s bystanders at a cardiac arrest in the street, at school or at home.

Who benefits

Around 900,000 people in the project area

The partnership

Three institutions, two countries

Budget

€1,665,218.51, of which 90% European funding

Timeline

24 months

Procuring the ambulances and installing the defibrillators run across the whole project. Staff training comes first, so the crews of the new ambulances are ready; the exchange of experience arrives only in the second half, once there is practice worth comparing.

Expected results

What remains after the 24 months

Contact

EURONEST Intercommunity Development Association

This web page has been produced with the support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the project partners and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Union or of the management structures of the Interreg VI-A NEXT Romania – Republic of Moldova 2021–2027 Programme.