If you collapse on the street today, or suffer a serious accident, it will probably be several minutes before the ambulance arrives. In those crucial minutes, your fate could be decided by a stranger. If there is someone around with even basic first aid, they would tilt your head back to open your airway, lay you in the recovery position, give you the kiss of life or do whatever was necessary to keep you alive until professional help arrived.

The bald truth, however, is that if you do collapse in public the strangers around you, kind as they may be, will be far more likely to stand about, hands on hips, watching, as they wait for the ambulance to come.

Despite the huge popularity of programmes such as 999, which occasionally features heroic acts by members of the public, you will be lucky to have your ugly turn or accident in the vicinity of anyone who knows much more about first aid than how to apply a sticking plaster.

When it comes to unconscious bodies, wounds, burns, breathing problems and nasty stings, we are, as a nation, pretty much hopeless. The latest research suggests that the majority of us have absolutely no idea what to do when faced with something as minor as a bee sting - let alone anything approaching a serious injury.

In fact we're fairly likely to do the worst thing possible, be it slapping butter on to burns, moving broken limbs about or electrocuting ourselves by trying to help someone who's just had an electric shock.

The experts disagree over how many people today have been trained in rudimentary first aid, but St John Ambulance, the country's leading first aid organisation, puts it as low as 1%. Recent market research by Mintel International comes up with the slightly more promising figure of 16%, but it's still pretty poor considering that each year there are 2.8m accidents in the home (the most likely place for mishaps), 1m in the workplace and at least another 325,000 on the road.

"People are worried about making a mistake," says Matthew Preston, head of first aid at St John Ambulance. "There's a perception that people might be sued, but the truth is that there has never been a case brought to court."

There may also be fears of catching a communicable disease, which is why mouth shields are now available in first aid kits and doctors are looking at the effectiveness of using chest compression without the more intimate kiss of life.

Then there is the fact that giving effective first aid demands an ongoing commitment: unless you regularly practise what you have learned it may be quickly forgotten. "We advise you to refresh every year, and our certificates are only valid for three years," says Preston.

St John Ambulance has recently set new targets to increase first aid training to 5% of the population, and at the moment is concentrating its efforts on promoting it in schools, but there is no denying that it is facing a momentous task.

In a recent review of patients admitted to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, it was discovered that in 1991, 67% of heart attack victims received first aid from members of the public, but by 1996 that percentage had, rather dramatically, halved to 34%.

"The incidence of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation is disappointingly low in most cities in the United States, Europe and Japan," report the authors of another study, published in Resuscitation, the journal of the European Resuscitation Council.

If things do get sticky though, better that it's a woman than a man who rushes to your aid. Women are more likely than men to know when to use a cold compress or how to deal with foreign bodies. In a St John Ambulance survey of 1,000 people, women were found to be nearly twice as confident as men of being able to administer first aid in the event of an accident at home. This is probably because they take responsibility for children's health: having children is one of the major factors behind people seeking out first aid education.

We might also learn first aid as a requirement of the health and safety executive at work, but apart from that there may be little motivation to go on a training course, which can last as long as four days. None of us in Britain are obliged to do a first aid training, unlike in Germany, where all new drivers are required to train in first aid and in Sweden where it is compulsory in schools.

Probably your best chance of being successfully treated by a bystander is if you have a cut or graze. According to Mintel we are well equipped when it comes to dealing with such minor mishaps: 88% of us have plasters in the home and 72% have antiseptic cream. However, for a more comprehensive family first aid kit St John Ambulance also recommends sterile dressings including eye pads, triangular bandages, safety pins and disposable gloves, all contained in an easily identifiable watertight box.

In case of emergency: 10 first aid tips

• Burns should be treated with plenty of cool or tepid water, preferably left running for at least 10 mins.

• Do not make someone who has consumed a poisonous substance vomit - it could cause more harm. Seek medical attention immediately.

• Remove bee stings by gently brushing them off, then applying a cold compress (eg a bag of frozen peas).

• Apply direct pressure over wounds to stop blood flow. Lay the casualty down and, if possible, raise the injured part of the body.

• Lay a person who has fainted down and raise their legs to increase bloodflow to the brain.

• If someone is choking on something lodged in their throat, give five sharp backslaps between the shoulders.

• When giving emergency aid to more than one person you should first attend to those who are unconscious, then those with serious bleeding, followed by those with fractures and other injuries. Remember that those making the most noise are not necessarily the most seriously injured.

• Someone who is unconscious but breathing should be placed in the recovery position. Lie the casualty on their side with the head tilted well back. Bend uppermost leg to prevent rolling forward. Lay upper hand under cheek.

• A tooth which has been knocked out may be successfully put back. Take the tooth quickly to a dentist. It needs to be kept moist, either by carrying it inside your mouth or in milk.

• An insect which has flown into the ear can be removed by pouring tepid water into the ear to flush it out.