Plans by a hospital to give parents medical training for children with heart conditions have been welcomed by parents affected. Evelina London Children’s Hospital, based next to Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London, is one of the country’s leading centres for children’s health and offers a range of services and treatments for patients.

It plans to train parents how to monitor their babies conditions after they’ve been discharged, showing them how to correctly check their respiration, pulse and other vital signs. Parents are already given specialist equipment to help check them, but the new training programme will aim to teach how to use it correctly – vital skills when potentially facing a life threatening emergency.

Rachel and Richard Davy from Sheffield, whose son Sam underwent heart surgery at the hospital when he was 13 days old, praised the announcement, saying it could potentially save lives: “If this programme saves lives and takes away some of the pressure we felt, then it’s desperately needed and welcomed.”