Two Liverpool men are working to ensure life-saving kits are always nearby if someone is injured in a knife incident.
Dominic Lipscombe and James Aylward-Connor's project PackMap will work to ensure that 'Bleed Control Kits' are available across the city and that people can find out exactly where they are. The kits take the form of a pack or wall-mounted cabinet containing the right apparatus and equipment to handle a catastrophic bleed in a situation such as a knife wound.
Designed to be used as a stop-gap between an incident taking place and emergency services arriving, the kits are an initiative by non-profit organisation KnifeSavers, which was founded by trauma doctors at the Major Trauma Centre at Aintree University Hospital. Working in conjunction with victims of knife crime and their families, the organisation hopes to "educate and empower people on how to treat life threatening knife injuries".
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In 2019, the ECHO launched a campaign with KnifeSavers to stop people dying from stab wounds. Currently, 1,500 Bleed Control Kits are available across the city, but Dominic and his co-founder James are aiming to increase the number and then make their locations publicly available on their online mapping system, named PackMap.
PackMap will show the location of every pack. If someone has been injured, then others would be available to find the nearest kit and to handle the bleed until an ambulance arrived.
It will also involve a management system for venues that stock a kit, called ‘PackMan’. This will ensure that the kits and information are up to date.
The system will hopefully launch in the coming weeks, as Dominic and James work to develop the map and get more locations, people and companies on board.
Dominic, 28, has also been involved in sourcing PPE for health and care staff and developing new ways to help foodbanks get vital supplies to people in recent years. About PackMap, he told the ECHO: "Our co-founder James Aylward-Connor came to me with this idea and said ‘can we make this happen?’ I'm working on the website and he's working to get partners involved.
"After an incident, every single second does count. People have been saved by these kits and we want to get them into everywhere we can."
The NHS target for responding to a category one call - for life-threatening injuries and illnesses - is seven minutes. North West Ambulance Service told the ECHO last month it responded to them in an average of nine minutes and 58 seconds in December. This is lower than the English average of 10 minutes and 57 seconds.
The target for category two calls - for serious conditions - is 18 minutes. NWAS responded to them in an average of one hour and 12 minutes last month, which is again quicker than the English average of one hour and 32 minutes.
Dom thinks the kits play a vital role in assisting with this. He said: "They're a stop gap for emergency services. The kits can buy some vital time."
He added: "There are kits already out there but we want to get more kits out there. And we also want our service to let people know where they can find one.
"For us, it’s about educating people about them. Letting them know about the locations of them, working with more organisations to get the kits in more places and trying to get more people involved. The more people involved the better.
"But it’s no good just saying there kits are out there. It’s also no good if the information we’re giving people is out of date. We want to be doing checks to make sure the kits are in the places they say they are and that they work."
"Now we want to get the name and idea out there and as many places as possible involved to help save people’s lives. We want to make sure that if someone is injured, they're never more than a few feet away from one of the kits."
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