Engineer calls for national bleed kit database

An electronic engineer who builds cabinets for community bleed kits says he wants ambulance services to sign up to a national database of the kits.

Mike Dowson from Turtle Medical, based in Kilsby, Northamptonshire, previously helped establish the National Defibrillator Database - an online resource mapping the life-saving medical devices.

Dowson said bleed kits, packed with specialised tools to help quickly stem catastrophic bleeding, were "rolling out at a rapid rate" and "could potentially save a life".

However, Carl Smith, from the Royal College of Paramedics, said the kits had limitations - particularly in treating internal bleeding.

Smith, a paramedic of 30 years, said: "Bleed kits are essential to stop external hemorrhage. But sometimes you cannot stop the internal hemorrhage and the only meaningful intervention is by a surgeon in a hospital.

"With a defib any member of the public can use one... but, even as an advanced clinical practitioner, if I get to someone who's been stabbed in the chest and I'm not able to open their chest, it's really just important to get them there [a hospital]."

Smith added that ambulance services might also be "apprehensive" about encouraging a member of the public to use a bleed kit in "hostile situations" such as instances of knife crime where it may not be safe to intervene.

Dowson said bleed kits were "not just about knife crime".

"It's about catastrophic bleeds and stopping people bleeding to death. That can be industrial accident or agricultural accidents," he said.

"We see our kits deployed almost every day across the country. One was just used to help a boy who had gashed his leg badly on a kerbstone."

Dowson added that there had previously been "stigma" about about placing the kits in clubs and pubs as venues feared being perceived as being a knife crime hotspot.

"Everybody now has started to finally get over that and wants them available," he said.

He said his "dream" was to register every bleed kit across the country so "we know where they are, we know they're being looked after by people and know that we can communicate all of that information to the ambulance service".

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