5. 3. Statement: The Heart Conditions Delivery Plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:46 pm on 7 February 2017.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:46, 7 February 2017

I indicated that it was April, but actually it’s May when I expect to be able to publish the new plan. I don’t want to completely pre-empt tomorrow’s debate either, which you’re going to be leading on a new legislative proposal, but some of this is about how we deliver more lifesaving skills and where and how we’re going to be able to do that. And there is a balance between what we make mandatory, and what we don’t. You’ll see the approach—I’m not going to pre-empt tomorrow’s statement and debate—. But part of this has definitely been about understanding where all the defibrillators are.

So, actually, a couple of years ago we launched what we called an amnesty—which is probably the wrong term, actually—on where defibrillators are and about making them available to the public. A number of businesses had them, but they were available just within that workplace rather than for members of the public. I visited, in fact, a pub in Barry high street, with the Member for the Vale of Glamorgan, to look at their defibrillator, which was on the register so the Welsh Ambulance Services Trust knew where it was, community first responders knew where it is and then are able to use it if there is a sudden arrest on the high street in Barry. So, that’s part of what we need to do more of more effectively. We’ve already got 2,000 defibrillators registered across the country, and it’s about understanding more of what we can do more of in that area, as well as equipping people with those lifesaving skills.

I won’t say more at this point, Deputy Presiding Officer, because we do have a debate on this tomorrow, and I don’t want to pre-empt anything you might say there, or anything I might say in response to the debate. But we do take this issue seriously, and we of course want to make further progress.