Hansard

I congratulate Margaret Mitchell on lodging this important motion and I look forward to the rest of the debate, including the minister’s speech, because the last statement of the Scottish Government’s position on the matter that I can see is in the “Better Heart Disease and Stroke Care Action Plan” from 2009, which said that boards have to follow the advice of cardiac managed clinical networks on defibrillators. I do not know what advice was given to different boards, so I look forward to an update.

The action plan was interesting in presenting the evidence that existed on the matter. It referred to an evaluation of the scheme in England, which was really ahead of us at that time. That evidence suggested that AEDs were very effective in busy public places, and it looked as if there were also promising results for community first responders. That was clearly very important for Scotland, because many areas of Scotland rely on community first responders. I hope that AEDs are available to them.

Another dimension to all this in Scotland is the rural issue, which the motion refers to. I was interested to read about the AEDs in Scotland campaign, which is based in Fort William. Other campaigns are mentioned in the motion, and I will refer to them in a moment, but that campaign has argued for AEDs to be readily available in public places in communities where ambulances cannot reach someone with a cardiac arrest within five minutes of the 999 call, and for AEDs to be carried in all police and fire service vehicles.

A map of availability, to which Margaret Mitchell referred in general terms, is shown on the AEDs in Scotland website and the online AED locator. It indicates that the majority of the devices are already kept in more remote locations. However, as members will realise, the reaction time of the emergency services might not be delayed simply as a result of geography; towns with a high population density or compromised road networks might also have slower responses. That is why further investment in urban areas is also essential.

The motion draws attention to the issue of young people who become victims of SADS—I say “SADS” for the sake of speed; everyone knows what it means because of Margaret Mitchell’s speech. As the AEDs in Scotland campaign highlights, the majority of the people affected by the condition are between the ages of 12 and 35, but children as young as six years old have been victims of it.

We need to examine the case for having defibrillators for use in the education environment. The motion rightly points to the great work done by individuals such as Samantha Clinton and to her involvement with the big shock campaign in raising awareness of cardiac arrest in young people among young people and their parents.

The recent news that North Lanarkshire Council will install a defibrillator in every secondary school is indeed welcome. The initiative is part of the British Heart Foundation’s heartstart schools programme, which aims to teach all students in Scotland basic life-saving skills by 2015. As we have heard, all 24 secondary schools in North Lanarkshire will be fitted with the machines before the end of March 2014, to ensure that any incident in which a schoolchild or employee suffers from cardiac failure will be met with a timely response until medical help is sought.

The heartstart programme is particularly useful as it allows young people to recognise the early signs of an oncoming cardiac arrest, such as dizziness and chest pains, and teaches them to respond in a calm and responsible manner or take appropriate action if they require help. It is important to widen the debate to that more general campaign, because clearly it is a matter of not just AEDs but emergency life support more generally, which the British Heart Foundation campaign highlights.

I believe that the Government has awarded £110,000 for a fund to develop sustainable models to create increased provision of emergency life-support training in secondary schools more generally by working with designated local authorities. I would welcome more information about that, because I have not read any more about it, apart from the generality.