Group 2: Life-saving Skills and First Aid (Amendments 1, 3)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:06 pm on 2 March 2021.

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Photo of Alun Davies Alun Davies Labour 5:06, 2 March 2021

But it is the passer-by that is critical. It is the person in the house, in the street, in the Parliament, who will save that life when a cardiac arrest takes place, and I too, like Suzy, saw the interviews yesterday and saw the reports of a real life-saving incident taking place in the centre of Cardiff. But, you know, I'm also reminded of Justin Edinburgh, who was the former manager of Newport County Association Football Club. He had a cardiac arrest in the gym, and there was nobody there who was able to save his life. I'm also reminded of Noel Acreman, who was only 25 when he had a cardiac arrest in Bute Park, again in the centre of Cardiff. There was nobody there able to save his life. By the time the paramedics arrived, it was already too late. And we owe it to them. We owe it to those people, not only the life savers, but the people who lost their lives, to take action in ensuring that these life-saving skills are available throughout our community and throughout our society. But we also need to ensure that there are defibrillators available to people, so that they exist in our communities across the whole of our country. So, there is a need for a strategy to ensure that out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is treated, and there is a need, I believe, for that strategy to be on a statutory basis. It was a defibrillator that restarted my heart—a defibrillator that was based in the college—and I was lucky enough there was somebody able to cycle to that college and to get it back whilst the people performing CPR on me were able to keep me alive for that to happen. That doesn't happen and couldn't happen and wouldn't happen in too many parts of Wales. 

Members are aware that I've already put forward my own legislation on these matters, and in doing so I quite deliberately did not seek to place these matters on the curriculum. My preferred route is to place a duty on Welsh Ministers to ensure that these skills are available throughout our society. That will include schools, but I do not believe it should be limited to schools. I know from my discussions with the Minister that she sympathises greatly with the arguments that are being put and I recognise the force of the argument that she made in the previous debate on these matters, and I also recognise her position that not everything that is important can be written onto the face of the Bill. I recognise that.

I hope that the Minister will respond positively to this debate, and in doing so I want to place on record my own personal thanks to Suzy Davies and her tenacious campaigning on this matter. All of us who have had a cardiac arrest appreciate, Suzy, the work that you've done on this and the way that you have ensured that this matter has been debated not once or twice but consistently in this Parliament. I hope that the Government, both the Government today and the Government that will be elected in May, will ensure that legislation is put on the statute book: comprehensive legislation that enables not only the learning of these skills through society and throughout our communities, but also ensures that defibrillators are on hand when these things happen, so that there will be many more lives saved in the future. We also hope that there will be many more reports of young people, as we saw yesterday, who are lifesavers and not simply standing by whilst life drains away. So, I hope that we will, in voting this afternoon, not simply take one step, but recognise what the Minister is seeking to do in reforming the curriculum and put forward a more fundamental reform of dealing with and treating out-of-hospital cardiac arrest for everybody in the future. Thank you.