The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) has launched a consultation on proposals to introduce legislation that would introduce compulsory CPR training and AED awareness training for every young person in secondary education across Northern Ireland.
In response to the launch of this consultation, Dr James Cant, Chief Executive of Resuscitation Council UK, said:
“We want to see every young person across the UK given the opportunity to learn CPR to ensure that no school student misses out on learning the skills needed to save the life of someone in cardiac arrest.
“Over recent years it has been great to see the importance of CPR education being recognised across Scotland and England but are concerned that young people in other UK nations are being left behind.
“We welcome the SDLP’s consultation on proposals to introduce legislation for compulsory CPR and AED awareness training for every young person in secondary education in Northern Ireland.
“We know that your chances of surviving a sudden cardiac arrest vary depending on a number of factors. If CPR education is universally available within schools, all young people will be equipped with vital lifesaving skills that could positively impact survival rates in their community. UK survival rates after out of home cardiac arrests remain stubbornly low, in comparison to other countries where CPR is taught universally in schools. And so we see the inclusion of CPR education as a key factor in saving more lives following cardiac arrest.”
“We have free resources available for teachers to use to teach secondary students CPR that can both be used in the classroom and virtually and we encourage teachers across the UK to use these resources. Visit: https://www.resus.org.uk/public-resource/cpr-schools to find out more.”
To contribute to this consultation, fill out this short survey.
