Malerkotla police launch first-aid campaign for personnel

The district police office, Malerkotla, has launched a coordinated campaign to equip all its personnel with latest first-aid skills, with focus on dealing with situations resulting from extreme weather events like floods, wildfires, storms and heatwaves. The day is celebrated on the second Saturday of September to promote awareness about the role of first-aid in saving lives.

Besides training its personnel in first-aid, the office has also planned to spread awareness among masses about the need of learning basic first-aid techniques, so that survival rate is improved in cases of vehicular accidents, fire incidents and heat stroke.

The campaign was formally kicked off by Malerkotla SSP Gagan Ajit Singh on the occasion of the World First-Aid Day on Saturday. The SSP said that the decision to ensure complete inclusiveness in provision of first-aid was taken in view of reports of rescue operations during recent floods in almost all districts of the state.

“Having known about the theme of the World First-Aid Day — ‘First-Aid Day and Climate Change’— , we decided to ensure that all constituents of our forces are fully equipped in first-aid skills during and after duty hours,” said Gagan Ajit Singh, maintaining that all circle officers had been advised to coordinate with the authorities in the Health Department for conducting workshops on the subject.

Ahmedgarh SP Rajan Sharma said healthcare personnel led by SMO Jyoti Kapoor had organised workshops for updating groups of cops posted at city police station and Ahmedgarh Sadar police station.

Appreciating the responsiveness of cops towards tips imparted on the subject, Kapoor claimed that first-aid was an emergency measure that often consisted of simple but frequently used life-saving measures that the vast majority of individuals could learn to execute with minimum equipment and no prior medical knowledge. She said that first-aid relates to the administration of care to a human being provided by a bystander, though it is not considered medical treatment and does not replace the expert medical intervention. The core aim of first-aid is to preserve life, promote recovery, prevent further deterioration and also includes safe transportation to nearby hospitals or healthcare centres.

Studies have revealed that the availability of first-aid had saved many lives, which could have been lost due to emergencies.