Cardiac Screening: Young People

Rebecca Pow Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mims Davies]

I absolutely do. My hon. Friend makes a great point about communities coming together—sadly, always off the back of a tragedy. We could be on the front foot on this issue instead.

[Rebecca Pow (Taunton Deane) (Con)]

I, too, absolutely commend this debate. Every single one of us probably knows somebody who has dropped dead. My brother-in-law’s brother, a great college friend of mine, did so, and we all know such people. We are, in particular, encouraging our young children to get into sport big time, and it gets more and more intense. Every time they get selected, they have more sessions, more training and it becomes more high profile; I would urge that we get testing going for these young people. It is often the fit and sporty ones that seem to be affected. Does my hon. Friend agree we should do something for these particular type of students?

[Mims Davies]

Absolutely. Italy saw a 90% reduction when sporting people were properly targeted.

Portable defibrillators will help people with no medical training; they can provide immediate, first-instance help to all patients following a cardiac arrest. Survival decreases by 23% per minute. The UK Resuscitation Council asks for an AED—automated external defibrillator—to be present in any location where medical treatment is further than five minutes away. Clearly, that means pushing on with installing these crucial bits of equipment in every public building, and encouraging more businesses to have them.

I thank the Chancellor for listening to Graham and Anne Hunter from my constituency and to the British Heart Foundation. Some £1 million has been pledged for defibrillators for community centres and to ensure that schools are delivering CPR training awareness. This is a welcome step, but more can be done.