The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia joins the rest of the world in celebrating World First Aid Day, which falls this year on September 11, to raise awareness of first aid and its importance and ways to deal with any emergency as soon as possible to face difficulties and emergencies, which may save a human life. Saudi Red Crescent Authority's (SRCA) head of training Dr. Mohammed Al-Suwaih, explained that the world celebrates World First Aid Day annually, because of its importance in saving lives, and raising awareness of the most important accidents and methods of first aid to handle these accidents, adding that the authority is keen to provide emergency and rapid medical services, efficiently in normal circumstances and disasters, and contributes to raising the level of health awareness by holding awareness lectures and training courses in first aid. Dr. Al-Suwaih indicated that these programs and courses target the public and employees of government agencies, the private sector, charities, in addition to school students, noting that they are available throughout the year and in all regions of the Kingdom and can be joined directly through the training website "https://training.srca.org.sa". He said that the authority is also interested in boosting its employees' skills through training and providing them with the latest scientific developments in the emergency medical services system, calling on families and community members to ensure the availability of a Medicine Cabinet at home, at work, and in their vehicles contains basic first aid items such as a guidebook that helps to know the correct ways to treat health problems, in addition to medical forceps and swabs, adhesive wound tape, antibiotic ointment, gauze bandages, and an elastic lumbar band that helps in fixing fractures and sprained joints and reduce swelling. Dr. Al-Suwaih stressed that there are certain basics that the non-specialized paramedic must follow until the arrival of the emergency teams, most importantly is reporting the accident to the authorities and requesting an ambulance from the nearest hospital to the accident site, and provide the medical responders with all the details of the accident and the patient as this would help the medical teams to a great deal in the treatment process.
