The skills of emergency life support (ELS) are simple, can save lives and be learned in just 2 hours. They can be performed by anyone to keep someone alive whilst the ambulance is on its way.

The Heartstart Course will teach you how to:

• Perform Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
• Care for an unconscious casualty
• Help someone who is choking
• Manage serious bleeding
• Recognise and treat someone having a heart attack.

Learning these simple skills could help you save a life.

Heartstart UK is an initiative co-ordinated by the British Heart Foundation to teach members of the public what to do in a life-threatening emergency: simple skills that can save lives. It provides opportunities for people to learn the vital skills of ELS.

Through Heartstart UK the BHF aims to strengthen the chain of survival by promoting and supporting ELS training in the community.

Heartstart courses offer practical advice, whilst encouraging discussion on improving resuscitation knowledge and practice. The benefit of CPR performed by a bystander in an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is significant. If you can perform effective CPR whilst the ambulance is on its way you can more than double a person’s chance of surviving. 

We offer courses open to the general public and also deliver them to local community groups. These free courses last for up to three hours and provide very practical ‘hands-on’ learning. They can be attended by all.