PLANS to introduce security patrols and install CCTV cameras at Chorley Hospital have been made following the theft of a potentially-lethal heart resuscitator.

The machine, stolen from the outside the Accident and Emergency unit on Monday, sparked off a massive police search.

But hospital chiefs breathed a sigh of relief when the life-saving equipment, worth around £6,000, was later discovered by a member of the public within the hospital grounds.

The theft of the defibrillator, which is used to administer a powerful electric shock treatment to patients whose hearts have stopped, is the latest in a series of similar incidents, and proved the final straw for hospital chiefs who determined it would not happen again.

The machine went missing when a medical representative was unloading it from his vehicle. He left it unattended for a moment, and that was when the callous raiders struck.

Inspector Stuart Coates, of Lancashire Police, immediately made an urgent appeal to the public warning that a defibrillator can be potentially lethal in the wrong hands. And he said that it was fully charged and ready for use when it disappeared.

A spokesperson for Chorley Hospital said: "The electric charge carried by a defibrillator can not only burn, but can alter the heart rhythm and can ultimately cause death. In the hands of someone who has not been trained to use it correctly it could have been lethal so we are very relieved to have it back in safe hands."

The machine would have been a significant loss, both financially, and potentially in terms of lost lives, if it had not been recovered.