Electrocardiogram Screening
Debate between Baroness Finlay of Llandaff and Baroness Twycross
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
My noble friend makes a really valid point, and it is exactly that sort of issue that the UK National Screening Committee needs to take into consideration when deciding a way forward. To give more information on its process, it is going to undertake a mapping exercise, and, when this is completed, the evidence map will be sent out widely for consultation, so there will be opportunities for people to take part in that.
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)
My Lords, at the very effective seminar that was arranged, it was clear that the screening of high-performance athletes is the area where benefit has been found. I wonder whether the Minister agrees, following on from the very perceptive comment from the noble Lord, Lord Winston, that the complexities interplaying behind sudden cardiac death in the young must be better understood. AI may come forward with a way of screening without this enormous number of false positives, because the danger of false positives is that young people avoid sport and exercise and then develop worse health outcomes in the long term, rather than actually finding ways of coping better for those who do need an intervention to sort out their cardiac abnormality.
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
I could not agree more with the noble Baroness on that point.
Olympic and Paralympic Games: Team GB
Debate between Baroness Finlay of Llandaff and Baroness Twycross
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
I agree. I learned how to swim in a swimming pool in south London, where my father literally threw me in at the deep end—which I am not sure is an accepted approach to teaching swimming now. This is an issue that has gone on for some time and we are acutely aware of the issue that the noble Lord refers to.
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)
My Lords, following the excellent example in Paris of the Paralympics, which apparently were modelled on the London Olympics and the tone that we set, will the Government recognise that, to have young people coming through who are able to perform, we need to have rapid provision of specialist prostheses for those children? We need specialist wheelchairs for them to be able to participate. Our ordinary services need to recognise that, when those children have the potential to become Paralympians, they need rapid access to highly specialised equipment to enable them to perform.