Ambitious plans to cut Scotland�s high death rates from heart disease and strokes were announced yesterday by Nicola Sturgeon.

Ambitious plans to cut Scotland's high death rates from heart disease and strokes were announced yesterday by Nicola Sturgeon.

They include the possibility of installing at airports and railway stations defibrillator machines that can restart the heart in the event of cardiac arrest by delivering an electrical shock.

It's part of a series of initiatives in the Scottish Government's Better Heart Disease and Stroke Care Action Plan unveiled by Ms Sturgeon when meeting recovering patients in Glasgow.

The Health Secretary also plans a campaign to promote awareness of symptoms so that people treat stroke as a "brain attack", on par with a heart attack, to encourage them to go to hospital and, thus, improve survival rates.

She also wants greater recognition of heart conditions that can carry a risk of sudden death. These can strike the fittest of people including, in recent years, the Motherwell Football club captain, Phil O'Donnell, who collapsed and died during a match.

The former Celtic midfielder was a victim of Sudden Cardiac Death - an umbrella term for the many different causes of a condition that affects young people, including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, where the heart muscle becomes thickened making it harder for it to work.

Ms Sturgeon's plans also include improving cardiac rehabilitation services by holding more gym sessions for recovering patients and people identified as being at risk from a heart attack.

Greater use will also be made of telemedicine so people get more rapid access to treatment wherever they live.

Another strand of the plan will see greater focus on what can be done to help those who have suffered heart failure, thought to affect around 100,000 people in Scotland, including improved access to palliative care.

Ms Sturgeon revealed her new strategy as it emerged Scotland was on course to meet targets to cut premature death from heart disease by 60% and stroke by 50% by next year compared to 1995 levels. The last set of figures were published in 2005 and showed deaths from heart attacks had reduced from 19 per 10,000 of the population in 1995 to 12 per 10,000 in 2005. Stroke deaths fell from 3.7% per 10,000 to 2% over the same period.

Ms Sturgeon said: "The big reductions we have seen in recent years in heart disease and stroke deaths show that, to a large extent, these are preventable diseases.

"But our progress is in danger of levelling out if we don't raise our game. While NHS treatment continues to improve, factors such as smoking, alcohol misuse and obesity remain a threat and we must do all we can to tackle them.

"This ambitious plan, containing nearly 70 specific action points around prevention, treatment and long-term support, means we can build on our achievements in a way that confronts head-on the challenges we face."

Marjory Burns, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation Scotland, said the government's proposals recognised concerns raised by her organisation and heart patients.

The plans were also welcomed by David Clark, chief executive of Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland (CHSS), and Maddy Halliday, Scotland director for the Stroke Association.

Mr Clark said his organisation had been heavily involved in the first CHD and Stroke Strategy launched in 2002.

"This new strategy provides an excellent opportunity to take this to the next stage by improving the quality of life for people who survive heart disease and strokes," he said.

Ms Halliday added: "The plan's emphasis on rehabilitation and recovery is very positive, as the quality of life for stroke survivors can be significantly improved if they receive effective rehabilitation and ongoing support once discharged from hospital."

Tory spokesperson Mary Scanlon said the plan was "far-reaching" but added: "I am disappointed the SNP Government has not placed more emphasis on prevention through health checks.

"They would have enabled individuals to be more aware of the risks facing them and could have taken action to reduce weight, blood pressure and cholesterol."