SUPPORT FOR THE NATIONAL MEDICAL RESCUE SYSTEM BY FIRE PROTECTION UNITS IN LIFE-THREATENING INTERVENTIONS CAUSED BY CARDIAC DISORDERS

This paper describes functioning of the National Rescue and Firefighting System (NRFS), a structureof cooperation in which both the resources (people and equipment) of the State Fire Service (SFS)and the Volunteer Fire Service (VFS) are included. The aim of the study is to analyse interventions ofthe State Fire Service units in life-threatening conditions caused by cardiac causes in the years 2020–2022.Materials needed for the analysis were provided by the Bureau of Operational Planning. Theobservations cover the period 2020–2022 in the territory of Poland. In the study use was made ofdata from the Decision Support System of the State Fire Service (DSS SFS), in which all interventionsof firefighters have been archived. In the SFS databases for the period 2020–2022, firefighters weredispatched to 8085 life-threatening interventions for causes classified according to the observationobjective, and namely cardiovascular disorders. Those interventions accounted for 1.39% of allMedical Rescue Operations. In the Lesser Poland Province, the highest number of interventionsconcerned sudden cardiac arrest/ cardiopulmonary resuscitation (SCA/CPR) (69%). Calls forcollapsing were most frequent in the Varmian-Mazurian Province (54%). The use of specializedequipment held by NRFS entities provides a variety of possibilities to support medical rescue entities.The SFS is the main service cooperating with the National Medical Rescue System during MRO.A faster arrival of firefighters in the case of incidents classified as Isolated Medical EmergencyIncidents (IMEI) can contribute to improving the prognosis of the victims, mainly in the SCA/CPRcategory, owing to a possibility of performing rapid defibrillation.