HOSPITAL equipment worth up to a million pounds which served generations of East Lancashire people has been sent thousands of miles to help the poor of Pakistan and India.

The gifts, ranging from heart monitors, X-ray machines, gynaecology equipment and intensive care monitors to beds and trolleys have been shipped out after months gathering dust at the former Blackburn Royal Infirmary.

And and discussions are also ongoing about adding an outdated MRI scanner to the list of donations.

The Infirmary closed in July and the equipment was replaced through £20million of new investment at the new Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Although it had become outdated and reached the end of its NHS life, charities were keen to make use of equipment in poverty-striken areas.

The boss of one of the charities to benefit said the donation was the biggest it had ever received.

And the leading figure at a Blackburn ethnic minority association said the gesture would give East Lancashire Asian people a "sense of belonging."

It is hoped that the equipment will help bring basic standards of healthcare to remote and poor areas in the two countries.

Most of it will go to the remote Sughra Shafi Medical Complex, in Narowal, Pakistan, which is run by Sahara For Life charity, founded by popular Pakistanis singer Abrar-ul-Haq.

The equipment, the last of which will leave the infirmary this week, includes three X-ray machines, nine intensive care monitors, beds and furniture.

Patients will also benefit from a device used to look for infections in the blood and an angiography machine.

This injects liquid dye into the body to make the arteries easily visible on X-rays.

Although this has been mostly replaced in England with sophisticated scanners such as MRI and CT machines, the equipment is expected to have a major benefit for the hospital.

It was taken abroad with the blessing of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs hospitals in the area.

The move was organised with the help of Janaid Qureshi MBE, senior executive officer at Blackburn's Ethnic Minorities Development Association.

He said: "The idea is to provide free medical facilities for those who can't afford to go into hospital.

"I am absolutely delighted. We are putting the equipment to better use and it will be used to treat thousands of patients who would otherwise not have the facility.

"It will give people from the ethnic minority community a sense of belonging that the trust has gone out of the way to help their fellow countrymen."

Faqir Hussain Maan, of the charity's London branch, said: "We are very thankful to the trust for giving us this equipment. It will improve the lives of many poor people."

The charity is also presently in discussions about dismantling one of the Infirmary's outdated MRI scanners to use at the hospital.

Gynaecology equipment has also been donated to the Sarenga Mission Hospital in Bankura, north east India.

The donation was organised by David Goodall, a retired consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist who formerly worked at Blackburn Infirmary.

He said: "The recent move from Blackburn Royal Infirmary to the new Royal Blackburn Hospital has provided an opportunity to help abroad.

"The East Lancashire Hospitals Trust has been happy to agree to donate surplus equipment.

"This includes theatre lights, operating tables, sterilisers, theatre trolleys, diathermy machines and some operating equipment.

Mr Goodall served as the medical superintendent of Sarenga between 1967 and 1980.

The West Bengal town stayed in his heart and in 1995 he helped move outdated equipment from Queen's Park Hospital to India.

He said he visited the hospital in March last year and realised a lot the equipment needed replacing.

The equipment was moved with the help of one of the hospitals' porters, Monty Maynard.

He brought in some muscle from his colleagues in the Territorial Army's B (Somme) company of the 4th battalion of the Duke of Lancaster Regiment.

Stephen Brookfield, the trust's director of finance and planning, said: "Those items which were still required were transferred from Blackburn Royal Infirmary to the new hospital.

"This equipment cannot be re-used here but hospitals in the third world are able to make very good use of it."