Community First-aid Kits Delivered to Rural Townships around New Acland Mine

Better emergency response rural areas


Article heading image for Community First-aid Kits Delivered to Rural Townships around New Acland Mine

Image: Courtesy RACQ LifeFlight Rescue

Rural communities around New Acland Mine are better prepared to respond to medical emergencies with the installation of new Community First-Aid Kits now complete.

Delivered by a rural safety partnership between New Hope Group and LifeFlight Australia, the kits are equipped with emergency medical supplies to assist locals in delivering critical first-response care.

Kits have been installed in five key locations near the mine including pubs and schools in Goombungee, Kulpi, Quinalow and Bowenville. These towns are up to 40-minutes’ drive to the nearest ambulance station.

 



Courtesy RACQ LifeFlight Rescue

 

The Community First-Aid Kit at Goombungee Pub is supported by a defibrillator machine, also installed via a New Hope community grant in 2016.

LifeFlight Director of Clinical Services, Dr Mark Edwards said that Community First-Aid Kits provide an important helping hand during the critical ‘golden hour’ after a medical emergency.

“The hour immediately following a medical emergency is the most crucial time for survival and positive long-term outcomes for the patient,” Dr Edwards said.
 
“It is critical patients are provided with the best care possible during this time.”

“LifeFlight Australia will continue to provide professional emergency medical care to the rural communities around New Acland Mine, but before emergency services arrive access to quality first-aid kits could potentially save someone’s life.”

New Acland Mine General Manager David Vink said the kits were designed to be simple enough to be used by people without first-aid training.

“The Community First-Aid Kits are stocked with colour-coded supplies and include simple, short instructions to help treat and stabilise patients before emergency services arrive,” David said. 

“The Community First-Aid Kit in Kulpi has already been used after a young boy injured his shoulder.”

The incident was minor but demonstrated the usefulness of the new kits.

“New Acland Mine is very passionate about bolstering the community’s access to emergency medical services,” David said.

“We take first-response care very seriously and we have our own Emergency Response Team that provides New Acland with highly-skilled first-responders 24 hours a day.”

“This commitment to high-class first response care on the mine site encouraged us to investigate ways of helping local communities to develop their own emergency response capabilities”

“In an emergency expert medical care can sometimes take a little longer to reach a rural home or workplace than it does in an urban location.”

“The better the first-aid the better the outcome for a patient waiting for professional emergency response services to arrive.”

23 January 2018




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