At Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK), we believe everyone has the right to make their best possible recovery after a cardiac arrest. That’s why we’re campaigning to improve the post-cardiac arrest support offered by the NHS.
In the UK, when someone has a heart attack or a stroke, there are formal care pathways that outline exactly what kind of support they and their families should receive to help them recover. But for cardiac arrest survivors, the support on offer is inconsistent.
Our report calling on governments to embed our survivor Quality Standard across the UK so that survivors of cardiac arrest have consistent support.
Our guidelines for cardiac arrest survivors aimed at ensuring consistent, effective and sustainable care for them and their families.
We need decision makers across the UK to prioritise this important issue, write to your representative and ask them to support our campaign.
We want the NHS to improve its post-cardiac arrest support. That's why we published a new set of guidelines for cardiac arrest rehabilitation in Summer 2024 - as part of our My Right To #CardiacArrestRecovery campaign. The guidelines detail how survivors of cardiac arrest should have access to consistent, effective, and sustainable care.
Following this we created a support page for anyone affected by cardiac arrest in collaboration with Save a Life Cymru. A discharge resource was developed for in-hospital explains more about cardiac arrests and outlines recovery: signposting to our dedicated support after cardiac arrest web page. The discharge resource was endorsed by NHS England, NHS Scotland, NHS Wales and the Department of Health in Northern Ireland.
In May 2026, we released The Weakest Link report calling for governments across the UK to embed our survivor Quality Standard. The report sets out an evidence based framework for recovery, from hospital discharge through to long term rehabilitation.
Throughout the campaign we’ve also been working with decision makers across the four nations on our cardiac arrest survivorship campaign. From hosting parliamentary receptions, to presenting policy briefings, to attending evidence sessions:
Parliamentary Briefing for MPs
Parliamentary Briefing for MSPs
Parliamentary Briefing for MLAs
Parliamentary Briefing for MSs
If you or someone in your family is a cardiac arrest survivor, we’d love to hear from you. Personal stories from people who’ve experienced cardiac arrest are vital to our campaign and help us ensure we’re highlighting the issues that matter the most.
We hold regular meetings for our Survivor Forum, which is open to survivors and key supporters to share their experiences, contribute to discussions, and take part in our campaigns and policy work. Your expert insight would be tremendously valuable. Please email us at communications@resus.org.uk to find out more.
When Asad met his work friends to play a 90 minute kickabout, he wasn’t expecting to wake up in hospital. Were it not for the presence of two hospital medics, he might not have woken up at all.
On Boxing Day 2017, Charlotte’s world came crashing down when she suffered a cardiac arrest. Her incredible engineer husband performed eight minutes of CPR.
On Saturday Feb 13, 2021, Dave had a heart attack and a week later he went into a state of cardiac arrest – the ultimate medical emergency – his heart had stopped beating.
