Call for CPR classes in schools

SAVE lives by putting CPR on the school curriculum, the Government has been urged.

The Irish Heart Foundation wants Finance Minister Brian Cowen to provide funding in the December Budget to roll out a national CPR programme for transition students in all schools.

About 5,000 people die from cardiac arrest and seven out of 10 arrests happen out of hospital with a survival rate of just 1%. When a person collapses following a cardiac arrest, every minute without CPR or defibrillation reduces the survival rate by between 7% and 10%.

Chief executive of the foundation, Michael O’Shea, said the Task Force for the Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death believes basic life support and defibrillator training should be considered a basic life skill like driving.

“By introducing CPR training on to the school’s curriculum, we can strengthen survival rates right across the country,” he said.

The charity has also called for the elimination of VAT on external defibrillators, provision of grants for physical exercise equipment in all schools and a €2 increase in the price of a packet of 20 cigarettes.