First-aid ‘should be a lesson for life’ at schools

TEACHING every child first-aid at school would save thousands of lives a year and dramatically reduce waiting times at Accident and Emergency departments, a top doctor has claimed.

Dr Jennifer Devine, associate specialist in emergency medicine at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, has called on the Scottish Government to make it compulsory for every child to be taught life-saving skills at various stages throughout their schooling.

She believes children should be taught four R’s rather than just three – reading, writing, arithmetic and CPR.

Devine said: “Every day A and E units see dozens of patients who, quite honestly, don’t need to be there. They could save themselves a two-hour wait for nothing more than at most a sticky plaster, if more people knew basic first-aid.

“The best way to ensure this knowledge is out there is to make the teaching of first-aid part of the school curriculum in Scotland so that future generations have skills which could save lives. It is actually a no-brainer that this is not already done as a matter of course.

“Learning how to save a life should be as important as learning to read or write as, let’s face it, it is surely more important to know how to stop bleeding or treat a burn than it is to know about long division.”

Devine said her A and E team sees an average 300 patients every day but that many of them would not need to go to hospital if they knew basic first-aid.

She said: “The problem is people don’t know what to do with these minor conditions and one way, to my mind the best way, is to teach the future generations what to do to give people the skills and the confidence to treat this themselves.

The British Heart Foundation last night backed the call for first-aid skills to be taught to schoolchildren as part of the Curriculum for Excellence.

A recent poll by the charity found 85 per cent of teachers and 78 per cent of parents back the idea.