A North Lancashire village has been gifted potentially lifesaving medical equipment.

Members of the Silverdale Emergency Response Group (SERG) were presented with a Public Access Trauma (PAcT) first aid kit as part of a county wide scheme organised by the Lancashire Resilience Forum (LRF) and funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

PAcT kits provide equipment such as dressings, tourniquets and bandages and are primarily designed for members of the public to help stop a catastrophic bleed if someone has suffered a serious injury, prior to paramedics arriving at the scene. 

More than 250 of the kits have been provided to public venues across the county as part of the scheme which is based on recommendations from the Manchester Arena inquiry which called for better provision of first aid equipment in key areas.

Jenny Webster, Liz Unsworth and John Lister from SERG received the kit from Neil Williams, Chair of the LRF’s Protect and Prepare sub group with Jenny saying: “We are extremely grateful to the LRF for this donation.

"We hope the kit is never needed but we all know that catastrophic bleeds need treating as soon as possible and to have immediate life-saving equipment for use by members of the public or first responders available can significantly increase the survivability of a person by preventing substantial blood loss.’’

Neil Williams added: “Thanks to funding from MHCLG the LRF, with support from the Lancashire Violence Reduction Network, has been able to distribute kits across Lancashire in publicly accessible locations such as shopping centres, railway stations, food outlets and various night time economy and entertainment venues.

“This also contributes to the Government’s whole of society approach to emergency preparedness which enables communities to become more resilient and ready to deal with a major incident.’’