Domestic Civil Defence - Roads Blocked !

Annex : Basic First Aid

When there is No Doctor and No Ambulance :

We are all used to picking up the phone and calling for medical assistance in a crisis. However, if roads are blocked or phones are dead, you may have to provide First Aid and maybe a bit more to your household and your neighbours.

First Aid is precisesly that - a means for providing initial care to the injured, to halt the progress of the injury and to provide sufficient support to keep the patioent alive until medical aid arrives. If the care given can promote and ensure recovery, so much the better.

Preparation and Training :

Contact your nearest British Red Cross, St. John or St. Andrew's Ambulance Brigade branch, to arrange for First Aid training. Other good sources are Emergency Planning Units and Ambulance stations. The writer first trained with an Ambulance Station instructor, then did a full 4-day Industrial First Aid course with a local authority and has done both First Aid and Emergency Aid with voluntary service instructors.

Your First Aid Kit :

Many good proprietory First Aid kits are on the market. The list of contents can be bewildering, but here is a rough guide to them and their uses :-

1. Diagnosis :
   First Aid Handbook. Thermometer.
2. Wound Cleansing :
   Cetrimide swabs, TCP, Dettol, Savlon (cream). Cotton wool swabs.
3. Minor Wound Coverage :
   Adhesive dressings, various sizes (e.g. Elastoplast strip or packaged dressings, standard or waterproof).
4. Wound Closure (e.g. for gashes) :
   Butterfly adhesive sutures.
5. Pressure dressings (i.e. to stop bleeding)
   Roller banadages and pads. Gauze dressings and adhesive tape.
6. Limb support :
   

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Improvised Equipment and Emergency Information :-

[Basic First Aid] [Fire Plans] [Crisis Travel]