Tip of the Month: Bleed Kits

You may have noticed bleed kits cropping up at various venues over the last year or so, much like AED’s as shared in last month’s feature. They are becoming particularly prominent in secondary schools.

Unless you have done a First Aid course, you may not have heard of bleed kits and know how they work.

Bleed-control kits include life-saving equipment that can prevent people from bleeding to death while waiting for paramedics to reach a scene. Much like AED’s (Automated External Defibrillator), they are predominately placed outside of buildings so are accessible to the general public. With bleeding, early intervention is crucial. Put simply, bleeding to death can happen very quickly. In fact, If haemorrhaging isn’t stopped, a person can bleed to death in just five minutes. If their injuries are severe, this could be even quicker. It’s a very scary fact.

As many will remember, on May 22nd, 2017, an extremist suicide bomber detonated a homemade shrapnel bomb at Manchester Arena as people were leaving an Ariana Grande concert. Twenty-two people were killed, and over 1,000 were injured during this attack, many sustaining life-changing injuries.

Martyn Hett was killed in the attack. A year later, his mother created ‘Martyn’s Law’ which resulted in new legislation called ‘The Protect Duty’.This legislation aims to make venue owners and event organisers responsible for keeping people safe from terrorist attacks. The New Act will impose several duties while ensuring that “robust plans must be in place to respond to a terror attack.”

Now is the time that public venues should be preparing adequate medical supplies, including trauma bags and bleed control kits, to be readily available.

More recently and very close to home, Mikey, from Kingswood, Bristol was just 16 when he was killed in a knife attack at a birthday party in the Bath in June 2023. The charity Mikey’s World has been created by Mikey’s mum, Hayley, to give back to the local community in Mikey’s memory, with a focus on young people. Community support is being provided by raising awareness of methods and bleed kits to help save lives from knife injuries. They have provided a large amount of bleed kits to local secondary schools in the last year.

So should your business have one? That is entirely your decision. With a small investment in a life-saving kit and some staff training, you may save the life of a friend, work colleague or a member of the public. Completing a risk assessment in your workplace can help you establish the need for special trauma kits or supplies. If your work involves a high-risk environment that contains metalwork, machinery or glass, or you work in a sector identified by RIDDOR  as benefiting from carrying specialist dressings and training in the use of tourniquets, or there a risk of violence in your workplace or injury from dangerous animals then you will benefit from one.