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Old Bus Converted to A.R.P. First-aid Post
Page 79
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SOUTHPORT A.R.P. officials have taken the initiative in providing one of the first mobile first-aid stations in the country for dealing with civilian victims of air raids. It has been ingeniously devised by Capt. F. C. Poulton, A.R.P. officer to Southport Corporation; and has been constructed from an old Leyland second-hand double-deck bus of the Titan Lowbridge type which was bought for a nominal sum of £50.
Despite nine years of municipal service, the original Leyland bus body, stripped of interior furnishings, has been retained. It has been adapted so that the sides of the bus hinge out to form two separate compartments, each extending on each side of the bus for a distance of 10 ft. When both compartments are extended the bus is 30 ft, wide.
In the event of war the unit will be used for decontamination and general treatment of gas casualties. It will work in conjunction with a further outfit of a similar type, shortly to be • built, which will deal with non-gas cases. The normal lower saloon of the bus has been equipped with an operating table, medical supplies and bins containing clean clothing for 65 men and a similar number of women. In the upper saloon is a staff rest room, fitted with bunks, bath, stove and water tanks.
The layout of each extension is identical. That on the off side is reserved for men and is divided into two main compartments—a dressing and undressing room—by wood-pulp walls fitted with mica windows. All the necessary decontamination equipment, spray baths, lavatory, etc., are housed in the compartments. The extension on the near side is similarly equipped and reserved for women.
It has been estimated that two of these mobile units would serve all the functions of a standard Ministry of Health fixed first-aid post, which costs nearly £3,000 in building alone. So far, the cost of the unit just built, including medical equipment, amounts to £700 and if, as is likely, it be fitted with an .air-conditioning and filtering plant, the complete outfit will cost less than £800.