Tag: bleed control kits

Nationwide installs defibrillators and bleed control kits at all 605 branches to support British highstreets

  • Nationwide is the first banking provider to roll out public access defibrillators and bleed control kits across all branches1 – as it becomes Britain’s biggest branch network
  • All 605 Nationwide branches to have a defibrillator and a bleed control kit installed by end of the year
  • Life-saving training for Nationwide colleagues and communities across the UK run by St John Ambulance
  • 87% of people would feel safer with local life-saving equipment: 97% state importance of free, life-saving first aid sessions
  • Forms part of Nationwide’s commitment to High Street and follows promise to keep all branches open until at least 2030

Nationwide is installing life-saving defibrillators and bleed control kits across its 605 branches, while rolling out life-saving first aid sessions in Britain’s local communities.

In what is thought to be the UK’s largest-ever combined rollout, the initiative builds on Nationwide’s long-term commitment to communities.

Britain’s biggest building society, which now has more branches than any other banking provider after overtaking Lloyds Banking Group, has promised to keep all branches open until at least 2030. The rollout, which will see the kits installed from now until the end of the year, is being done in partnership with Visa, with St John Ambulance working alongside Nationwide to offer life-saving training for colleagues and local communities.

The importance of having life-saving equipment readily available locally for emergency services to deploy if needed – and the crucial role the public can play – is made clear by the facts: without first aid intervention, a severe bleed or cardiac arrest can lead to death within minutes.

Severe bleeding remains a leading cause of death after traumatic injury in the UK, with knife- or sharp instrument-related offences totalling around 53,000 in 2024/20252. And of the 40,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the country each year, fewer than one in 10 people are estimated to survive3.

Yet, if a patient is defibrillated within three to five minutes of collapse, survival rates increase by up to 70 per cent4.

A national poll of over 2,000 people conducted by Nationwide highlights the gap in emergency support within communities:

  • 87% of people would feel safer knowing there is life-saving equipment available in their local area.
  • 88% say life-saving equipment should be as common as fire extinguishers in public – just 27% know the location of their nearest defibrillator and 9% their nearest bleed kit.
  • 89% of people specifically want more public access to bleed control kits due to the rise in knife crime.
  • 56% would find it easier to remember equipment locations when associated with a well-known brand.
  • 97% believe it’s important to have life-saving first aid training available for free in their local area, with over three quarters (77%) of people saying they would attend nearby free sessions.

Despite the need and support for life-saving equipment, there is a gap around public confidence in using resources. More than one in four (27%) wouldn’t feel confident stopping a severe bleed, while 31 per cent wouldn’t feel confident using a defibrillator. Despite the need for urgent intervention, 42 per cent wouldn’t step in for fear of making the situation worse. It is perhaps why over half (51%) don’t believe a stranger would come to their aid in a health emergency.

The lack of confidence is most prevalent among younger people – 18-24-year-olds are more than twice as likely than over-55s (10% vs 4%) to panic in a life-threatening health emergency.

To help build public confidence, Nationwide is working with St John Ambulance to roll out volunteer-led training in life-saving skills. This opportunity will be offered to 4,000 branch colleagues before expanding into ‘Heart of Community’ sessions, giving local people the knowledge and confidence to carry out CPR, use defibrillators and understand how to treat a severe bleed in an emergency.

Amanda Beech, Nationwide’s Director of Retail Services, said: “Nationwide’s unique reach as the UK’s largest branch network gives us the ability to put life-saving equipment where it matters most – in places people already know and trust in their communities.

“By transforming our branches into visible, emergency hubs, we’re making it easier to access help when every second counts.

“Crucially we’re also offering training to all our branch colleagues, before extending that training into the communities we serve. We want more people to feel prepared, confident and ready to act when it matters most.”

St John Ambulance Chief Medical Officer, Professor Andrew Hartle, said: “We’re so pleased to work with Nationwide and Visa on this project, which so perfectly meets St John Ambulance’s mission to put the power of first aid into everyone’s hands.

“With hundreds more public access defibrillators and bleed control kits across the UK, and thousands more people confident to use them, I am confident many more lives will be saved in our communities.”

The kits will be available 24/7 unless within a shopping centre and can be accessed by the public as directed by 999. For more information on where our branches are located visit Nationwide Branch Finder.

So far defibrillators and bleed control kits have been installed across nine Nationwide branches: Tooting, Peacehaven, Seaford, Eastbourne, East Ham, West Wickham, Maidstone, Northampton Kingsthorpe, and Redhill.

STOP THE BLEED: FREE public bleed control training sessions

87% of emergency responders believe more lives could be saved if the public were better prepared with trauma response training

Safeguard Medical is calling for the introduction of life-saving bleed kits across the UK and offering over 500 places on FREE bleed control training sessions for UK public to help support emergency responders to save more lives.

In a recent survey of UK Emergency Medical Services, Fire and Police commissioned by Safeguard Medical, 87%  of respondents agreed that if the public were more aware of the immediate care required following major trauma, preventable deaths would decrease.

The majority of first responders (85%) believe that more lives could be saved with the introduction of bleeding control kits, placed alongside every public access defibrillator.

The UK Government has released statistics that over 41,000 knife crime offences occurred in 2020/21, of which 224 were homicides. Bleed kits contain lifesaving equipment including tourniquets to stop major bleeding and haemostatic bandages that can be ‘packed’ into a wound to stop haemorrhaging.

Safeguard Medical is appealing to raise greater awareness of the vital skills that help to preserve life following a trauma incident. During the COVID pandemic, emergency responders reported increased pressures, with 95% agreeing they have responded to an increased number of trauma incidents.

Almost half of those surveyed (48%) agreed that the public could be better prepared to respond while waiting for professional ambulance assistance to arrive on scene.

Emergency responders are also dealing with the mental health impact of witnessing and experiencing trauma, with 94% agreeing that their mental health had suffered because of the increased pressures placed on the emergency medical services during the pandemic. 

Safeguard Medical believes that if the public were better prepared to deal with medical and trauma emergencies, this immediate support could help reduce mental health pressure on emergency medical responders, whilst also directly saving lives.  

One of Safeguard Medical’s partners, the Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, will host a training session on World Trauma Day at Merry Hill Shopping Centre in the West Midlands, delivered by Safeguard Medical’s training division, Prometheus Medical.

At this free, open event, the public can learn vital first aid skills that could save someone’s life. These include how to perform CPR, use a defibrillator and how to manage major bleeding.

Ian Jones, air operations manager for Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, said: “With more than 63% of the charity’s missions being trauma-related, it’s important to use this day to shine a light on the enhanced critical care our crews provide, and what bystanders can do to help the patient before medical expertise even arrives.

“In addition, the demand for advanced medicines and equipment coupled with specialist care on scene delivered by our critical care paramedics and flight doctors continues to rise annually, with a 1.3 per cent rise in trauma-related incidents compared to 2020, which was already an extraordinary year with additional Covid pressures.”

The emergency responders surveyed agreed that since the pandemic, certain trauma incidents have increased considerably. For example, as more people have been upgrading their homes, DIY accidents have increased (28%), as have falls from height and sporting incidents (25%).

Professor Richard Lyon MBE, Chief Medical Officer at Safeguard Medical and a practising NHS Consultant in Emergency Medicine & Pre-hospital Care, said: “Tragic incidents like the fatal attack on MP David Amess highlights that penetrating trauma incidents can occur anywhere, at any time.

“There is a real opportunity for better public access to life saving equipment, like bleed kit, in order to save more lives. Even with an air ambulance travelling in a straight line at over 130mph to an incident, patients can bleed out in under 5 minutes in some circumstances.

“Minutes are critical when you are bleeding.  This is why a tourniquet or haemostatic trauma bandages in bleed kits give the public the chance to intervene and save a life.

“Our rapid response teams can then focus on keeping the patient stable and preparing them for medical intervention once at the hospital.”   

Professor Lyon agreed that during the UK lockdowns, the number of callouts to incidents reduced but added: “There’s been a significant increase in recreational incidents following the lifting of lockdowns.

“Accident from sporting incidents, DIY, road traffic collisions, falls from heights,  as well as an increase in mental health-related incidents and assault-related trauma – particularly knife crime – have all increased.”

Safeguard Medical is dedicated to equipping responders at every skill level to saving life, in any environment. Which is why its training arm, Prometheus Medical, is providing over 500 free places on its medical training courses across the UK to help prepare the public and businesses to respond better to medical emergencies by understanding bleed control.

Elite medical training company Prometheus Medical, is offering free training on trauma response and bleed control in Edinburgh on 15th and 16th February 2022

Register interest here: 

https://news.prometheusmedical.co.uk/p/6X1A-1S7/worldtraumaday

To find out more and register your interest for the free training sessions, visit www.prometheusmedical.com

To learn about how Safeguard can supply bleed kits for general public use, visit:

https://safeguardmedical.com/en-gb/products/haemorrhage-control/prometheus-bleed-control-kit-daniel-baird-foundation/.

A demonstration of how to use the Bleed Control Kit can be viewed here:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRmt5E8b1lg