UK’S FIRST BLEED CONTROL CABINET INSTALLED IN SOUTHSIDE
Designed to prevent a catastrophic bleed while paramedics race to the scene, the UK’s first bleed control cabinet will be installed in Hurst Street, in the Southside district of Birmingham today (Thursday 12 November).
The cabinet, which is accessible 24 hours a day by a code provided by the Ambulance service, can be used by any bystanders. It contains a public access portable bleed kit which has the same emergency equipment as is found on an ambulance (such as haemostatic dressings, a tourniquet and a chest seal) as well as full instructions for use.
The installation comes just two months after the stabbings in Birmingham city centre in which one man was killed, and seven others were injured. In West Midland cities, it takes an average of seven minutes for an ambulance to get to the scene of a catastrophic bleed injury, so the cabinets, which can contain up to four kits, can be vital in bridging this gap, and ensuring people don’t bleed to death in the street.
Southside District’s wardens have been trained to use the kits, and are training local businesses to ensure that they are confident to use them, should the need arise.
Working in partnership with the Daniel Baird Foundation, Turtle Engineering designed and built the cabinet in the UK and have worked closely with West Midlands Police on the location of the first installation.
Julia Robinson, Southside District manager said: “The tragic events of September highlighted once again the importance of speed in responding to trauma incidents, in order to save lives. Although serious incidents are, thankfully, not common in our district, it is reassuring for our residents, visitors and businesses to know that we have this additional resource available to us, and we’re hugely thankful to the Daniel Baird Foundation and West Midlands Police for making this happen.”
Mike Dowson, Managing Director of Turtle Engineering said: “Bleeding from trauma injuries can prove fatal in three to five minutes so we are making it our mission to try and get the cabinets and bleed kits truly accessible in all major towns and cities throughout the UK.
“We are very proud to be helping the Daniel Baird Foundation with this first cabinet because they have trailblazed the need for accessible bleed kits in the West Midlands.”
The Foundation (which was set up in honour of Daniel Baird, who was fatally stabbed in 2017) have been campaigning for more first aid and bleed kits to be made publicly available in cities across the UK.
Lynne Baird, Daniel Baird’s mother, who set up the Foundation, said: “We are delighted to announce this joint collaboration with Turtle Engineering. These public access kits are a vital tool in saving lives, so we are very excited that the UK’s first cabinet containing these kits is about to be installed in Birmingham. We hope this will be the first of many and look forward to seeing more of them nationwide soon."
West Midlands Ambulance Service Chief Executive, Anthony Marsh, said: “When I met Lynne last year, I was moved by her determination not to let other mothers go through what she has had to bear. I fully support her campaign; having more bleed control kits will help to save lives. As we see in cardiac arrest cases, every second counts, so the more bleed kits we can get on our city centre streets the better.”
The cabinet, with kit inside, costs £500 fully installed.