Thank you very much, Deputy Llywydd. It's a pleasure to open this debate in the name of Darren Millar on behalf of the Welsh Conservative group. This motion today is something I know garners huge cross-party support. The out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rate in Wales is the lowest in the UK and one of the lowest in Europe. This is something that all of us in this Chamber should do all we can to improve in Wales. What better way to follow up on World First Aid Day, which happened at the weekend, and to mark Save a Life September, than by supporting this motion before us? Some 30,000 people across the UK suffer a cardiac arrest outside of hospital every year, with only one in 10 people before the pandemic surviving. And now, the British Heart Foundation are estimating that one in 20 people survive as a consequence of the pandemic. 

Defibrillators play a huge part in saving someone's life when they suffer a cardiac arrest. If used within five minutes of a cardiac arrest, it can increase survival rates from 6 per cent to 74 per cent. Without immediate treatment, the vast majority of sudden cardiac arrest victims will die, which is why access to defibrillators is so important. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Calon Hearts for providing defibrillators in my hometown of Prestatyn and at Denbigh Rugby Club. These vital machines will undoubtedly save the lives of my constituents, but we need so many more of them. While charities such as Calon Hearts, the British Heart Foundation, as well as rotary clubs up and down the country are doing what they can, the Welsh Government needs to step up. 

They have to ensure that there are defibs in every community in Wales and legions of people trained in CPR. Without these two vital links in the chain of survival, far too many people die from a cardiac arrest. We have all seen the stories over the past few weeks about the performance of our ambulance service. The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust is overworked and overwhelmed. In my health board, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, only half of all 999 red calls receive a response within the eight-minute target. Our motion points out the chance of surviving a cardiac arrest decreases by 10 per cent every minute. It's no wonder that the survival rate of cardiac arrest in Wales is the lowest of the United Kingdom nations. Just over 4.5 per cent of people survive a cardiac arrest in Wales. Over the border in England, twice as many people survive, statistically.

With fewer and fewer 999 calls meeting the red call target, we must ensure that people in the community have the tools and skills to respond. It takes as little as 30 minutes to train someone in CPR, and a defibrillator can be used without any training at all. Modern automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, the kind of kit being provided by Welsh charities, are idiot proof. They instruct the user on how to operate the machine and save somebody’s life.

It has been just over three months since Christian Eriksen, the Denmark national football team captain, collapsed during a Euro 2020 match against Finland. And more seasoned footballers might remember Marc-Vivien Foé back in 2003, I think: he played for Manchester City; he sadly didn't survive, but Christian Eriksen did, fortunately. As people around the world watched the remarkable medical team intervene to save Eriksen’s life, it became clear that the football star had suffered a cardiac arrest. Thankfully, the quick-thinking medical team jumped into action and carried out CPR on him and used a defibrillator to save his life. But, unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky as Christian Eriksen, as we saw all those years ago with Marc-Vivien Foé. Maqsood Anwar also, aged 44, died after suffering a suspected heart attack while playing cricket in the Vale of Glamorgan earlier in the summer, and a few weeks later, 31-year-old Alex Evans died after having a cardiac arrest while playing rugby in Neath Port Talbot.

According to the Resuscitation Council, the public needs to be within 200m of a defibrillator. Given their life-saving impact, it is fundamentally important that we have defibrillators installed in as many easily accessible public spaces across Wales as possible. There are currently just over 4,000 external defibrillators in Wales, something which the Welsh Conservatives want to change quickly. But we cannot rely upon charities to provide these vital pieces of life-saving kit—the expense is just too great. Each machine can cost around £1,500, particularly those machines robust enough to be placed in community settings. It is the Government that is failing to provide sufficient emergency cover, so it should be the Government that funds the cost of the training and the kit to provide emergency cardiac care in the community.

According to a Welsh Government report in 2019, over 55 per cent of people surveyed said that they did not know where the nearest defibrillator was. Two years later, they have finally introduced funding for Save a Life Cymru. This funding is helping to develop a programme to educate people on how to help someone suffering a cardiac arrest, and also to help people gain confidence in using a defibrillator. Although this funding and scheme are welcome, we simply need to do more. The people of Wales deserve to have a defibrillator in every community hall, sports ground and even in independent shops, so that we can slash the number of deaths by cardiac arrest in Wales.

I urge Members to support this motion today and send out a clear message that Wales is taking action during Save a Life September. Diolch yn fawr iawn.