MSP in call for heart screening for young athletes

An MSP has called for the launch of a national heart screening programme for young athletes following the death of a promising young footballer who collapsed and died during a match. 

Jamie Skinner died in 2013, following a cardiac arrest while playing at Tynecastle Football Club.

Scottish Conservative shadow public health minister Miles Briggs has calling on the Scottish Government to introduce a national screening scheme for all young athletes aimed at preventing similar tragedies in the future.

The Jamie Skinner Foundation has already been set up a campaign to provide a defibrillator in every secondary school and sports centre in Edinburgh.  

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Briggs, a Lothian MSP, said that setting up a screening programme for young athletes would be the next logical step. ​

He said: “The Jamie Skinner Foundation have led the way and I congratulate them on their work which has to date seen £40,000 spent on community defibrillators. 
The next step towards preventing the death of other young sports stars is the introduction of a national heart screening programme for young athletes in Scotland.
 
“Scotland can lead in this area by delivering a comprehensive screening programme for all young people. The electrocardiogram (ECG) test is painless, non-invasive and takes only a few minutes to perform.

"The scan looks at the electrical conduction pathways around the heart and is then evaluation by a cardiologist.
 
“I believe the time has come to bring forward new ideas to address this and many other issues and for the next Scottish Parliament to take steps to put in place the best practice – a national youth screening programme would help to find any heart defects in young Scots before they cost lives.

"Insisting that all children are given an electrocardiogram test either at school or at their local sports club could help identify those who are at risk.”