LOCAL councils will be ‘named-and-shamed’ if they fail to cut deaths and disability from sudden heart attacks, under new Government plans.

Town halls – which become responsible for public health measures from next week – have been told to make cardiovascular disease (CVD) a key priority.

As part of the plans, the new NHS Commissioning Board (NHSCB) will * Boost the number of people trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and in using automatic external defibrillators (AEDs).

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  • Push for defibrillators to be more widely available, which “could save additional lives”.
  • Improve the system for online mapping and registering of the locations with defibrillators.

A new organisation, called Public Health England (PHE), will then “make available, at local authority level, comparative data on CVD outcomes”.

However, the strategy falls far short of growing calls for new laws requiring busy public buildings to install the life-saving defibrillators.

Today (Monday, March 25), Labour called for compulsory machines - to restart the heart with an electric shock – and for CPR to be added to the national school curriculum.

Andy Burnham, Labour’s health spokesman, said community fundraising could pay for the £1,000 devices, adding: “If we had them in all very busy public places, we could save a lot of lives.”

The call echoed The Northern Echo’s campaign – called ‘A Chance To Live’ – for greater use of defibrillators in public places and private gyms.

It follows the case of 51-year-old Mike Brough, a Darlington father-of-four, who nearly died of a heart attack after playing football at the town's Dolphin Centre.

Every year, 30,000 people in the UK have a cardiac arrest out of hospital - and only 18.5 per cent of them survive, NHS data shows.

Yesterday, MPs debated sudden cardiac deaths, prompted by an e-petition set up after Oliver King, a 12-year-old Liverpool boy, died during a school swimming lesson.

The new Government strategy comes as part of a switch that will hand responsibility for improving public health to local council ‘health and wellbeing boards’.

Ministers say they have handed town halls higher funding than enjoyed by doomed primary care trusts (PCTs), that will disappear this week.

Councils will be responsible for ensuring people aged 40 to 75 undergo regular ‘NHS health checks’ – taken by less than half of patients in some parts of the country.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said, earlier this month, that 30,000 lives could be saved by 2020, by tackling the five big causes of death - including cardiovascular diseases.

He added: “For too long we have been lagging behind and I want the reformed health system to take up this challenge and turn this shocking underperformance around.

“These proposals, for those with cardiovascular diseases, will bring better care, longer and healthier lives and better patient experience – which we must all strive to deliver.”