Include basic life support in curriculum of basic schools – Emergency medicine specialist

An Emergency Medicine Specialist at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Dr. Joseph Bonney, is calling for a law to be instituted to ensure every public facility has First Aid Box and Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

While calling for training of workers in public facilities with basic life support skills, Dr. Bonney urged that the Basic First Aid Principles and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) be included in the curriculum of basic schools.

Dr Bonney noted that cardiac arrest and heart attack have claimed many lives due to the lack of skills by bystanders to resuscitate victims and also the unavailability of AEDs.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 17.9 million people die each year from cardiovascular disease (DVDs) and in Ghana, 14,103 people died from the disease in 2020.

Dr Bonney explained that including First Aid Principles in the curriculum of basic schools will enable the students to grow up with the knowledge and teach others in the communities to save lives.

The Emergency Medicine Specialist was speaking to Class 91.3 FM’s Ashanti Regional Correspondent Elisha Adarkwah, on the sidelines of a day’s workshop on Basic Life Support organised by the Elijeko Foundation in collaboration with the National Ambulance Service for the public held in Kumasi.

The workshop was aimed at equipping the general population with the information and skills required to provide pre-hospital medical interventions.

Dr Bonney, therefore, called on the government to consider making it mandatory for first aid boxes and AEDs to be available at public facilities and also include basic life support in the curriculum of basic schools.