Over 70,000 Red Cross First-Aiders Trained Last Year
For Guangzhou, a major national central city, the development of an emergency rescue system is closely tied to the sense of security of every resident. “Carrying out emergency rescue training” was among the ten practical livelihood projects of Guangzhou in 2025. Over the past year, the Guangzhou Red Cross Society has continued to enhance its brand “Red Cross Rescues at Your Side”, and further promoted emergency rescue training programs into communities, rural areas, schools, enterprises, government agencies and families. A total of more than 1,300 public welfare publicity and education sessions on emergency rescue knowledge were held, benefiting over 150,000 people, and more than 70,000 Red Cross first-aiders were trained. The city’s emergency rescue training work has maintained a leading position in the province. In addition, the Guangzhou Red Cross Society, in conjunction with the Municipal Health Commission, the Municipal Party Committee Social Work Department and other relevant departments, added 1,025 Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) across the city. Among these, 224 AEDs were allocated to village clinics in Conghua, a suburban district. The innovative launch of “Rural Mobile First-Aid Stations” has created a new full-coverage rural emergency rescue model featuring “mobile AEDs reaching patients”, filling the “emergency gap period” caused by the long arrival time of ambulances in remote areas.
The New Rural Emergency Rescue Model Covers All Villages in Conghua
Known as a “life-saving artifact” for its repeated role in critical life-or-death situations, the deployment of AEDs in public places and the popularization of first-aid skills are long-awaited by the public. Wu Ying, Director of the Relief and Rescue Department of the Guangzhou Red Cross Society, stated that in 2025, the society, together with 6 other units including the Municipal Health Commission and the Municipal Party Committee Social Work Department, added 1,025 AEDs to Guangzhou’s emergency equipment inventory.
On November 4 last year, a citizen suddenly fainted and collapsed at a table tennis hall in Jiekou Street, Conghua District, Guangzhou. The individual lost consciousness and suffered cardiac and respiratory arrest, with their life hanging in the balance. Upon receiving the dispatch order from the Conghua 120 Emergency Center, the emergency rescue team of the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University immediately dispatched an ambulance. Meanwhile, they contacted the Tuanxing Village Clinic, which is directly opposite the table tennis hall. The village doctor on duty at the clinic immediately rushed to the scene with an AED. Thanks to the multi-party collaboration and continuous rescue efforts, the patient successfully regained spontaneous heartbeat on-site, and was then transferred to a major hospital by an ambulance for further treatment, eventually making a full recovery.
The AED that played a crucial role in this rescue operation has now covered all village clinics in Conghua, following the construction of rural mobile first-aid stations last year. Each village clinic is also equipped with an electric bicycle. During a recent visit to the Yuanhu Village Clinic in Wenquan Town, Conghua District, reporters saw a bright red AED bag marked with “Conghua Rural Medical Emergency” placed in a prominent position in the pharmacy. An electric bicycle parked at the entrance of the clinic bears a highly visible unified logo of medical and health institutions. “Since being equipped with the bicycle and AED, I have responded to two emergencies—one involving an elderly villager who fell, and another involving an unconscious victim of a traffic accident. Fortunately, I didn’t need to use the AED in either case, but the electric bicycle allowed me to reach the scenes faster for initial assessment and treatment,” said Zhang Furong, the village doctor of Yuanhu Village. He added that he can reach any residential area in the village within approximately 3 minutes on the electric bicycle.
Over 750,000 Red Cross First-Aiders Trained in Recent Years
The rural mobile emergency stations, consisting of “one bicycle plus one AED”, were developed based on Conghua’s local conditions and represent a pioneering initiative in China by Guangzhou. Conghua District is dominated by mountainous and hilly terrain with complex geographical conditions. Its rural areas are vast, with scattered populations, resulting in a long service radius for emergency rescue. Village clinics, however, are located in every village, and village doctors are the closest to the villagers and most familiar with the local road conditions. “By providing village doctors with electric bicycles and AEDs, we aim to extend Guangzhou’s under-construction ‘5-minute emergency rescue circle’ network to rural areas, bridging the ‘last mile’ of emergency services,” said Zhang Ke, Deputy Director of the Conghua District Health Bureau. Each AED at the village clinics is equipped with a positioning system. When an emergency rescue team from a major hospital or town health center receives a task from the 120 Emergency Center, they can simultaneously coordinate with the nearest village doctor, who can then rush to the scene with the AED on the electric bicycle. Upon arrival, the village doctor can quickly assess the patient’s condition and provide initial treatment. They can also use the video emergency rescue system to visually transmit the patient’s situation to the ambulance team and obtain remote guidance. This enables them to stabilize the patient’s condition within the critical medical treatment window, sustain the patient’s life, and wait for the arrival of the professional rescue team.
It is reported that in addition to providing “hardware” such as AEDs to village clinics, the Guangzhou Red Cross Society has continued to strengthen the efforts of promoting emergency rescue training “into villages and residential areas”, building a solid line of defense for the life and health of citizens. Last year, the number of Red Cross first-aiders trained through the society’s “rural outreach programs” increased by 42% year-on-year, while the number of public welfare emergency rescue publicity and education activities in rural areas rose by 51%. Among these initiatives, 1,551 village doctors in Conghua received specialized training, helping them improve their emergency rescue capabilities and master the use of AEDs. Since the full implementation of the project in July last year, the rural mobile first-aid stations in Conghua have successfully treated two patients who suffered cardiac arrest.
Emergency situations can occur in various public places. According to reports, in the process of fulfilling the 2025 livelihood projects, the Guangzhou Red Cross Society has adhered to multi-party collaboration and expanded the coverage of training programs. It has jointly issued documents with the education, public security and fire-fighting departments to establish a long-term training mechanism. Within one year, the society trained 20,900 Red Cross first-aiders in schools, held 290 public welfare lectures benefiting 67,000 people, and expanded the Red Cross first-aider teams for public security and fire-fighting departments, with over 2,100 and nearly 3,000 personnel trained respectively. To support the 15th National Games, the Guangzhou Red Cross Society also collaborated with the Municipal Party Committee Social Work Department to carry out 45 sessions of life education activities under the theme “National Games with You, Rescue at Your Side”, and trained 10,972 medical volunteers for the 15th National Games and the 137th Canton Fair.
Data shows that by the end of December last year, the Guangzhou Red Cross Society had held 1,316 public welfare lectures, benefiting 153,185 people; a total of 70,052 Red Cross first-aiders were trained in the year. In recent years, the cumulative number of Red Cross first-aiders trained has reached 750,000, accounting for 4% of Guangzhou’s permanent resident population, ranking first in the province.
According to reports, this year, the Guangzhou Red Cross Society will launch a series of “Cherish Life, Rescue at Your Side” “Five Ones” initiatives. These include holding more than 100 lectures on life health and emergency rescue, training over 10,000 certified Red Cross first-aiders, recruiting more than 10,000 emergency rescue volunteers, building a high-quality team of emergency rescue trainers, and organizing a skills competition for emergency rescue trainers. The society will continue to seek support from all parties, steadily advance the construction of the “Guangzhou 5-Minute Community Emergency Rescue Circle”, foster a social atmosphere where “everyone learns first-aid, and first-aid serves everyone”, and contribute Red Cross strength to building a healthy and civilized Guangzhou.
