Just received the email given below and thought the forum may be interested.

We thought we’d pass on the news that ITV will this week be airing a one-off special documentary on First Aid in Britain. As far as we know, the programme How to Save a Life will explore the issues surrounding the UK’s poor cardiac arrest survival rates, looking at bystander CPR problems and whether life-saving skills should be taught in schools. We know that ITV recorded an interview with First on Scene’s Medical Director, Dr Andy Lockey, from the Resuscitation Council (UK) and also did some filming in a Norwegian school (where training is mandatory and survival rates are higher).
The programme comes as a result of a Radio 4 feature that discussed the British Heart Foundation’s campaign to get Emergency Life Saving Techniques added as a mandatory part of the school curriculum. Following the popularity of the report, the BHF were approached by ITV producers who wanted to put together a documentary that explored this issue further.
The team here at First on Scene are very supportive of the campaign to make Emergency Life Support a mandatory part of the school curriculum and we hope that the programme raises awareness in this subject.

How to Save a Life airs on Thursday 7th February at 7.30pm on ITV1.

Happy viewing .. so to speak.

Badger

Someone just linkedin me this as well, was going to put it on here but seen you're ahead of the game. Will be interesting to watch. Wondering if they make any point about the unworkable mess that the changes to First Aid training will result in.

Badger

Thanks for drawing attention to the programme. It's billed as featuring retired footballer Fabrice Muamba who is campaigning for first aid to be taught in schools. For those who don't know of him, considerable media publicity was given to his survival after a cardiac arrest during a televised football match at Bolton in March 2012.

Some of the schools I used to work with had schemes for training all employees in first aid - a basic life skill - and some of them, notably primary schools, provided first aid training for older pupils. Also, I understand that some education authorities, notably in Wales, have a policy whereby all of their mainstream schools offer first aid training for pupils. Such authorities can justify the time and cost of such training by citing cases where pupils with such training have been able save lives when adults present didn't know what to do. From time to time when workng for a local authority I used to suggest to its education department that it emulated the enlightened authorities I've described. Though some pleas, like mine, have had little effect, hopefully other people using greater influence and better publicity channels, notably TV as per tonight's programme, will be much more effective in stimulating a clamour for first aid training for pupils in schools - and also for older teenagers and adults elsewhere!

A summary of last night's programme can be seen at http://www.itv.com/news/...ight-how-to-save-a-life/

Through having a cynical view that most TV programmes are made for entertaining viewers rather than informing/educating them, I didn't expect a lot from the programme and therefore wasn't disappointed or surprised by it. With adverts before, during and afterwards, the programme's duration was only about 20 minutes and thus couldn't cover much more than it did. The salient points included the fact that a significant proportion of the 140,000 people who die each year in the UK through cardiac arrest, etc could be saved if notably more people knew about first aid and CPR. Perhaps I'm being pedantic in complaining that for some way into the programme people kept referring to "CPR" without explaining that it means cardio-pulmonary resuscitation or what it actually entails.

A major theme of the programme was that in some European countries such as Norway first aid training for school pupils is compulsory. As a result the cardiac arrest (heart attack) survival rates in those countries are much higher than in the UK. (I wish I'd known about this when I used to press my former employer about first aid training for pupils in its schools.)

Last year, the subject of compulsory first aid training for school pupils was debated in Parliament, presumably in connection with a 132,000 signature petition to the Prime Minister headed by Fabrice Muamba. The Education Minister was shown commenting that schools should be left to decide what to teach their pupils so as to avoid a tick box approach (a rationale which didn't make sense to me). Though the debate achieved little at the time, the programme concluded by saying that representatives from relevant organisations, including the British Heart Foundation, plus MPs from all 3 major political parties are due to meet the Education Minister later this month to press for compulsory first aid and CPR training in schools. Arranging several hours of training per pupil per year surely shouldn't be an overwhelming task for schools. Also, according to discussions I've had with first aid organisations at OS&H exhibitions, there are trainers available and no doubt more could be trained to meet demand.

During the sequence about training in Norwegian schools mention was made of the fact that many Norwegian employers provide first aid training and refresher courses for all employees. No doubt this helps to maintain the momentum of knowledge and confidence which many Norwegians gained while at school.

Does anyone have any inkling as to what proportion of UK employers offer first aid training for employees who are not designated as workplace first aiders?

Also, can forum users involved with such employers offer any useful advice to other forum users who are thinking of encouraging their employers to start to offer such training?

And a .gov petition has come from a First aid provider on Twitter
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38674

What amazes me - is how slowly genuine first aid advice circulates on social networks - yet emotive stories about to how to survive a heart attack when on your own by coughing (not the best of ideas), get shared millions of time :(

Lets get this shared!

oh and the programme itself can be viewed here:
https://www.itv.com/itvp...w-to-save-a-life-tonight