EG Group bidding to support East Lancashire hospitals

The EG Group has pledged to support ELHT&Me, the fund-raising arm of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.

The group is behind the development currently being created on the Barracks Road site at Gannow Top which was home to the former St Teresa's RC Church for around 40 years.

From today, all local EG outlets will carry specially branded ELHT&Me donation buckets and collection boxes. The companies hope that customers, as well as their suppliers and staff, will get behind them and join them in a bid to raise £300,000 by the end of July.

This ambitious campaign will culminate in a donation to provide the hospitals with a fleet of new defibrillators. This will mean that any patients, staff or visitors to hospitals in Blackburn, Burnley, Accrington, Pendle and Clitheroe who suffer a cardiac arrest, would have quick and easy access to life saving equipment.

It also means that nurses, doctors and other staff will be trained to use one single machine type that will be available throughout the Trust.

EG Group’s commercial director Ilyas Munshi said: “Our NHS provides excellent and compassionate care to the people of Blackburn and Pennine Lancashire.

"EG Group is a local firm, owned and built by a local family and we are proud to be loyal and dedicated supporters of our local hospitals’ charity, ELHT&Me. They will be the exclusive beneficiary of our UK charitable expenditure."

Medical Director at East Lancashire Hospitals, Professor Damian Riley, added: “This is another generous gesture by the EG Group demonstrating its ongoing support for the Trust, its services and our patients. We are enormously grateful. Defibrillators are not needed all the time thankfully, but when they are, they can often mean the difference between life and death.”

The charity hopes that other local companies will follow EG Group’s lead and enter into ongoing or one-off support arrangements for all the local hospitals here in East Lancashire.

Christine Hughes, director of communications for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We need our charity more than ever before so we can continue to equip our doctors and nurses with the best possible, most advanced kit.

"For example, the Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital was the first in Lancashire to install a surgical robot, delivering innovative surgical solutions for many different forms of cancer for patients right across our area. However, it cost over £1m.

“Thanks to the kindness of patients, families, staff and the local community, we’ve raised around £500,000 in the last year and this is making a real difference to patients.

"This commitment from EG is a tremendous boost. I really hope that other local organisations follow their example and join us in our fund-raising efforts to benefit the patients of Pennine Lancashire.”