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Cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest systems not ready in rural Pakistan
Health system readiness for out-of-hospital-cardiac-arrest management in resource limited settings: A mixed-method study from rural and suburban Sindh, Pakistan
Resuscitation Plus · 2026-09-24 · Added 19 October 2026
Mixed-methods assessment of the OHCA chain of survival in rural and suburban Sindh found no functional defibrillator across seven hospitals, gaps in basic resuscitation equipment and ambulance availability, and poor community recognition of cardiac arrest.
- Study type
- Cross-sectional
- Design
- Mixed-methods (exit interviews, facility readiness checklist, focus groups and interviews)
- Participants
- 163 patient exit interviews and 7 hospitals
- Main finding
- Defibrillators present in 2 of 7 hospitals but neither functional, laryngeal mask airways unavailable in all facilities, and satisfaction lowest for communication (26.4%) and financial aspects (31.3%)
- Caveat
- Small facility sample in a very different low-resource setting.
- Bottom line
- Context only
Why it matters in Australia (Low relevance). A low-resource health system with major infrastructure and access barriers — it describes a chain-of-survival gap, not anything comparable to Australian ambulance practice.
Learning goal
Recognise how equipment and system gaps across the chain of survival shape out-of-hospital cardiac arrest outcomes.
More
- Topic: Cardiac arrest
- Daily scan: 19 October 2026
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