The bid comes on the back of the tragic death of 13-year-old Jamie Skinner who passed away in 2013, following a cardiac arrest while playing at Tynecastle Football Club.
After the tragedy, the Jamie Skinner Foundation set up a campaign to provide a defibrillator in every secondary school and sports centre in Edinburgh.
More than 1,500 Scots died in 2015 after suffering a cardiac arrest and survival figures have remained stubbornly low.
Now Miles Briggs, Scottish Conservative shadow minister for public health is calling on the SNP government to introduce a national screening scheme for all young athletes across Scotland.
Miles Briggs said:
“The Jamie Skinner Foundation have led the way and I congratulate them on their work which has to date seen £40,000 spent on community defibrillators. The next step towards preventing the death of other young sports stars is the introduction of a national heart screening programme for young athletes in Scotland.
“Scotland can lead in this area by delivering a comprehensive screening programme for all young people. The Electrocardiogram (ECG) test is painless, non-invasive and takes only a few minutes to perform. The scan looks at the electrical conduction pathways around the heart and is then evaluation by a cardiologist.
“I believe the time has come to bring forward new ideas to address this and many other issues and for the next Scottish Parliament to take steps to put in place the best practice – a national youth screening programme would help to find any heart defects in young Scots before they cost lives. Insisting that all children are given an electrocardiogram test either at school or at their local sports club could help identify those who are at risk.”