More need to learn CPR

Apoll of more than 6,000 adults conducted for the BHF shows around a quarter of the UK population have received CPR training in the last five years. But when healthcare professionals and others who have received training as part of their job are discounted, the research shows just 9% of the general public have been trained voluntarily.

In some parts of the UK the problem is particularly concerning – fewer than 7% of people in Yorkshire and Humber, the North East and the North West of England and just 4% in Northern Ireland, have been trained voluntarily in CPR – all of which are areas where heart disease rates are higher than the UK average.

The survey reveals the main reasons people say they have not received CPR training are a lack of awareness about CPR (17%), not knowing where to go for training (15%), or a belief that they will never need to use it (14%).

Katharine Peel, head of Emergency Life Support at the BHF, says: “Coronary heart disease is the UK’s single biggest killer, with someone suffering a heart attack every two minutes, so this is a problem none of us can afford to ignore.

“About a third of heart attack victims die before reaching hospital because they go into cardiac arrest. Performing CPR can buy vital extra minutes and keep them alive until paramedics or a community responder arrives.

The BHF is also calling for emergency life support training to be made a standard part of every child’s education across the UK, including being added to the National Curriculum in England, to ensure an entire generation of children are exposed to vital lifesaving skills such as CPR.