A NORTH-EAST MP has stepped up the campaign to install life-saving equipment in all schools, gyms and public buildings.

Grahame Morris, Labour MP for Easington, said defibrillators are the best way to combat Sudden Death Syndrome which kills thousands of people each year, including young people.

"This is a matter of life and death," the Health Select Committee member said in a Westminster debate.

During the debate he praised The Northern Echos A Chance To Live campaign, which is also calling for more defibrillators in public places.

"An estimated 60,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur each year and, incredibly, of the 30,000 cases attended by medical professionals, fewer than one in five of the people affected receive the life-saving intervention they need following a survivable cardiac arrest."

He pointed out that MPs and peers enjoy the protection of 16 such defibrillators, and added: " The general public should enjoy a similar level of protection."

He went on: "There are nearly 100,000 deaths each year in the UK due to cardiac arrest, which is more than 250 a day, making it one of the UK's biggest killers.

"Although CPR can buy more time, defibrillation is the only effective treatment for cardiac arrest caused by ventricular fibrillation, where the heart quivers and stops pumping blood around the body.

"The British Heart Foundation has found that, for every minute that passes without defibrillation, chances of survival decrease by 14 per cent."

A Northern Echo survey found that every council-run gym in the North-East has a defibrillator yet 80 per cent of private gyms do not.

He said: "Modern defibrillators are designed to be used by untrained members of the public and the machines will automatically diagnose the patient and deliver an electric shock only if it is necessary."