Glasgow campaign to cut heart deaths with mandatory CPR in schools

They are also less likely to receive the first aid that could save their life. The Evening Times wants to help change these grim statistics.

Today, we launch a new health campaign which aims to create a city of lifesavers.

We want to persuade Glasgow City Council to become the first local authority in the UK to make CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) training mandatory in all its secondary schools.

Figures show there is a massive gulf in survival rates in Scotland, and Glasgow in particular because of the health and deprivation link.

Only one in 20 people will survive an out of hospital cardiac arrest in Scotland, compared to one in ten for the rest of the UK. For every minute you don’t receive CPR, your survival drops by 10%.

Compare that figure to Denmark, where CPR is mandatory and has helped achieve a one-in-four survival rate. Before the training was part of the school curriculum that figure was one in 13.

Our campaign fits in with a Scottish Government target to equip 500,000 more people with CPR skills in the next two years, which estimates suggest could save an additional 1,000 lives.

Local authorities have it within their power to make CPR part of the curriculum and the Evening Times wants Glasgow to lead the way.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has pledged to supply every secondary school in Glasgow with a £1300 training kit which includes a DVD, re-usable, inflatable manikins, which lasts 30 minutes - around 0.04% of the school year - and requires no staff training.

The charity has already given kits to around 22 out of the city’s 30 secondary schools but has no way of knowing how many are using it. Making the life-saving training mandatory, it says, would solve this problem.

David McColgan, Senior Policy Manager at BHF Scotland, said: “Glasgow would be the first city in Scotland to make CPR mandatory in schools and the first in the UK. It would be world-leading.

“One of the reasons why we want Glasgow City Council to be the first local authority in Scotland to do this is because cardiac arrests are far more likely to happen in Glasgow than anywhere else in the country.

“Around 47% of the population in Glasgow live in the most deprived areas of the country and are twice as likely to have a cardiac arrest than someone in the least deprived areas.

“However, they are least likely to get bystander CPR.

“Research, shows the schools who are using our kits tend to come from the least deprived areas. So we are technically compounding the problem. We are training the kids who are least likely to need it.

“It’s great that we already have 22 schools registered for a kit but the problem is, at the moment, it’s entirely up to schools whether they do it or not.

“When you look at the outcomes, one is knowledge about your health and wellbeing and also being a fully active citizen.

“The evidence shows that where you have a young mobile, population trained in CPR, the survival rates will go up.

“”Only one in 20 people will survive a cardiac arrest in Scotland. We are way behind the rest of the UK.”

A cardiac arrest is when your heart suddenly stops pumping blood round your body, commonly because of a problem with electrical signals in your heart and the patient will normally lose consciousness.

It differs from a heart attack, which happens when the blood supplying the heart muscle is cut off due to a clot in one of the coronary arteries, although a heart attack can lead to cardiac arrest.

The BHF believes the ideal time time for the life-saving lessons would be in fourth year because it is the last year that school is mandatory and as part of personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) classes.

Mr McColgan said: “That would equate to about 4,500 kids being trained in Glasgow every year.

“It would involve schools finding 30 minutes in the school curriculum, something like 0.04% of the school year.

“There is no training required. It’s a DVD and there are two trainers.

“The challenge around making it mandatory relates to the Curriculum for Excellence because you can’t mandate on the curriculum centrally but local authorities can make a directive, locally, saying we want all our kids trained in CPR.”

According to the last figures the charity obtained from schools, 22 out of the city’s 30 secondaries have the kit but less than half are using it. These include Lochend Community High, where more than 50% of pupils are from the most deprived areas, Drumchapel High and Eastbank.

Mr McColgan said: “Pupils from those schools are most likely to see a cardiac arrest.

“80% of cardiac arrests happen in the home, which means the people who is most likely to give or receive CPR are family.

“In Denmark the surival rate is one in four, in parts of Norway is one in three and in Seattle it is one in three. In Seattle, in order to get a driving licence you have to have CPR training.

“The evidence shows that where you have a young mobile, population trained in CPR, the survival rates will go up.

“When you have a cardiac arrest every minute is crucial.

“What CPR does is that it buys time for an ambulance to get there and it buys time for someone to get a public access defibrillator if there is one nearby.

“It’s about identifying a cardiac arrest, dialing 999, starting CPR and sending someone for a defib and then let the ambulance staff take over.

“If you look at the footballer Fabrice Muamba, they did CPR on him for for 80 minutes. Now, he’s an ambassador for the BHF and pushes the message of CPR.”

The charity teaches the ‘gold standard’ of CPR, which is 30 compressions, followed by two breaths. However, the message is clear, hands only CPR can be just as effective.

Mr McColgan said: “There will be times when someone delivers CPR and they can’t be saved.

“But we know, if someone is trained, they deliver better quality CPR and are more likely to get involved.

“The big challenge is that too many people see defibrillators as the solution. There’s a value in them but when 80% of cardiac arrest happen in the home so the main thing is CPR and keeping that blood flowing around the body.

“We want to see CPR mandatory in all schools in Scotland but we are focussed on Glasgow.”

A Nurse's View: 'Everyone should know how to do CPR'

Half-an-hour.

That’s all it takes to teach someone CPR. To me, it’s a life skill. Everyone should learn how to swim and everyone should know how to do CPR.

Saving one person’s life has an impact on everyone they know and their family.

Sudden cardiac death is not an old person’s problem. It happens to young people. It happens to young people for a variety of reasons, cardiac rhythm problems, people with an undiagnosed cardiovascular disease. It's not just old people that it happens to.

For every minute that passes your chances of survival drops by 10%. If you stand and do nothing for three minutes, the chances are they will have no cerebral function. After five minutes, the chances of getting them back to life are virtually zero.

I am conscious of the fact that a lot of money has already been spent and some of the equipment is already in schools. I see it as an ideal opportunity for the older pupils, the pupils in fifth and sixth year, to work towards a citizenship award by teaching the younger pupils.

Since the Save a Life for Scotland campaign was introduced, the number of people who suffer an out of hospital cardiac arrest who receive on-the-spot resuscitation has increased to 50%.

We need to make sure if anyone collapses there’s a bystander there willing to have a go.

It just takes one person to be brave enough to say: ‘I’ll have a go’. It’s phoning an ambulance, putting one hand in front of another, and putting them in the middle of someone’s chest and pushing up and down, that’s it. That’s all we need people to do. It’s not complicated and it saves lives.

The findings from a study in Denmark show the kids who are taught CPR go home and encourage other people in their house to learn it as well.

That’s half-an-hour well spent.

Elizabeth Simpson, lecturer in adult nursing at Glasgow Caledonian University, and course organiser for the British Heart Foundation Heartstart programme.