Following is a question by the Hon Maggie Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Tang Ping-keung, in the Legislative Council today (November 11):
 
Question:
 
     It has been reported that in 2025, the Hong Kong Fire Services Department (FSD) handled approximately 8 000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) cases (i.e. an average of 22 cases per day). In addition, the number of publicly accessible automated external defibrillators (AED) across Hong Kong increased to 4 038, while more than 280 000 members of the public had completed training offered by the Resuscitation Alliance (RA). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) over the past three years, of the respective numbers and percentages of patients who showed signs of life upon arrival at hospital and who survived to hospital discharge among the OHCA cases handled by the FSD; whether statistics have been compiled on the number of cases in which cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was administered or an AED was used by bystanders before the arrival of ambulance personnel;
 
(2) as the information on the "Centralized AED Registry for Emergency" platform is provided voluntarily by various sectors of the society, whether the authorities have complied, on their own, statistics on the actual number of publicly accessible AED across Hong Kong and the provision rate per 1 000 population; if not, of the reasons for that;

(3) as the current annual training target under the Secondary School Student Digital AED and CPR Experiential Programme (Experiential Programme) is not fewer than 5 000 students, whether the authorities have assessed the proportion that such number represents of the total secondary student population in Hong Kong; and whether they have plans to extend systematic first-aid training to primary school students, elderly persons and family carers; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
 
(4) apart from the performance indicators for the FSD's ambulance service at present, which primarily measure the percentage of calls responded within the target response time of 12 minutes, whether the authorities have plans to compile and publish statistics on OHCA treatment outcomes and to conduct an overall assessment of the effectiveness of programmes such as the Experiential Programme and programmes organised by the RA; if so, of the details and the timetable; if not, the reasons for that?
 
Reply:
 
President,
 
     To enhance public awareness and capabilities in respect of emergency preparedness, the Fire Services Department (FSD) has been making vigorous efforts to formulate and implement strategies for community emergency preparedness, as well as organising educational and promotional activities. It endeavours to increase the survival rate of patients by getting the public to know about automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and fostering a culture of "self-help and help others". Initiatives such as the "AED Anywhere for Anyone" (AAA) Programme, the Resuscitation Alliance (RA) and the "Secondary School Student Digital AED and CPR Experiential" Programme have been launched to improve AED accessibility and enhance training on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and AED use. Coupled with the provision of post-dispatch advice, it is hoped that the best use of the "golden hour" can be made before the arrival of ambulance personnel, thereby increasing patients' chances of survival.
      
     A reply to the questions raised by the Member is as follows:
 
(1) The statistics of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) cases handled by the FSD in the past three years are as follows:
 

Year	Number of OHCA cases handled by the FSD#	Cases in which CPR was administered or an AED was used by bystanders before the arrival of ambulance personnel		Cases with signs of life upon arrival at hospital
		Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage
2023	7 917	2 634	33.3%	524	6.6%
2024	7 348	2 517	34.3%	614	8.4%
2025	7 153	2 483	34.7%	687	9.6%

# The Hospital Authority does not maintain statistics on the number of cases that survived to hospital discharge.

(2) The FSD launched the AAA Programme in June 2021 in a bid to gradually increase the number of AEDs readily accessible to the public across the territory, enabling the public to locate and use an AED as quickly as possible when necessary, and enhancing people's awareness of using an AED. Relevant information about AEDs (including their locations) is available at the FSD's online information platform "Centralized AED Registry for Emergency" to facilitate public access. Since the launch of the programme, over 380 public and private organisations have voluntarily uploaded the details of a total of 4 617 AEDs. Currently, the FSD only maintains data on the voluntary participants of the programme and does not have the statutory power to require all organisations and individuals to register the details of their AEDs. Therefore, statistics on the actual total number of publicly accessible AEDs across Hong Kong or the provision rate per 1 000 population are not available.
 
(3) The FSD launched the "Secondary School Student Digital AED and CPR Experiential" Programme in May 2024, teaching secondary school students how to perform CPR and use AEDs on cardiac arrest patients. As of October 2026, about 24 000 secondary school students from over 120 schools had completed the training. Besides, the FSD, in close collaboration with the Education Bureau, runs the "School-based Education Programme", which targets students at kindergarten, primary and secondary levels, to strengthen their grasp of the critical situations in the community and teach them methods to deal with such situations by means of a series of courses and activities. Topics covered in the training include survival skills to employ in the event of fires and emergencies, and practical knowledge of handling emergencies such as the administration of CPR and the use of an AED. The programme enables the students to acquire basic survival and first-aid skills at an early stage.
 
     As for the general public, the FSD also enhances their emergency response knowledge and skills through various programmes. Since 1999, the FSD has organised community CPR training courses from time to time, covering basic CPR and an introduction to the use of an AED. Launched in 2017, the "Press to shock - Save a life" course has provided free CPR and AED training to 53 000 members of the public by September 2026. The "Press to shock - Save a life" course is open to all Hong Kong citizens, including elderly and family carers. Members of the public may enrol individually or apply to arrange group sessions. The FSD also provides online learning resources to facilitate the acquisition of relevant first aid knowledge by the public.
      
     In addition, the FSD launched the "Community Emergency Responder" Scheme in 2024 to equip members of the public (including primary and secondary school students) with knowledge in fire prevention, emergency response and first aid. More than 18 000 members of the public have already completed the course. The FSD also holds community education activities and talks targeting various groups to promote emergency response knowledge, and has reached over 680 000 participants over the past three years. The FSD will continue to enhance emergency education and will explore ways to strengthen targeted training arrangements tailored to the needs of different groups (including primary and secondary school students, elderly and family carers), so as to further consolidate community resilience.
 
(4) The primary mission of the FSD's ambulance service is to deploy appropriate ambulance resources to scenes as soon as possible and to provide emergency ambulance and transport service to convey patients to hospitals. Therefore, the FSD has all along adopted the response time as a key performance indicator (i.e. arrival at the street address within 12 minutes for at least 92.5 per cent of emergency ambulance calls). The subsequent clinical results of patients (e.g. the survival rate) are, however, affected by a lot of factors and should not be taken as the performance indicator of ambulance service.
 
     As for OHCA cases, the percentage of cases in which CPR was administered or an AED was used by bystanders before the arrival of ambulance personnel ranged between 33.3 per cent and 34.7 per cent for the period from 2023 to 2025 (see Part (1) above). To further raise the effectiveness of treatment for OHCA cases, the FSD rolled out the enhanced post-dispatch advice service in October 2018. Whenever a call for emergency ambulance service is received, personnel of the Fire Services Communications Centre (FSCC) will provide immediate advice to callers over the phone as appropriate. The callers will be instructed to stabilise the patients' injury or condition before the arrival of the ambulance crew, including how to administer CPR or how to use an AED in cardiac arrest cases to make good use of the "golden hour".
      
     For programmes such as the "Secondary School Student Digital AED and CPR Experiential" Programme and the RA, they aim to enhance the general public's knowledge and skills in first aid and the consciousness "to offer aid". The impact of these programmes is reflected in the change in behaviour and social ambience, the effectiveness of which cannot be simply evaluated by quantitative indicators. The FSD will continue reviewing the implementation of the programmes and the number of participants, so as to adjust the strategy as needed. Public education and publicity activities will remain in place to encourage more people to become rescuers, to enhance the "Dare to Do, Save a life" ambience, and to promote the message of "Anyone can use an AED".

Ends/Wednesday, November 11, 2026
Issued at HKT 12:48

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