A UK First!

The first ever Bleed cabinet and kit installed in Birmingham

Designed to prevent people from bleeding to death while paramedics race to the scene, the UK’s first bleed control cabinet was installed in Hurst Street, Birmingham on Thursday 12 November, created in partnership with us here at Turtle and the Daniel Baird Foundation.

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. Accessible 24hrs a day, the cabinet is accessed by a code provided by the emergency services.

What’s in the cabinet?

The cabinet, which can be used by first aiders or bystanders alike, contains a public access portable bleed kit which has the same emergency medical parts found in an ambulance (such as absorbent dressings, a tourniquet and a chest seal) as well as full instructions for use.

In major UK cities it takes an ambulance seven minutes (on average) to get to the scene of a catastrophic bleed injury, so these 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.

Partnership with the Daniel Baird Foundation

Mike Dawson, MD here at 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.”

Lynn Baird, Daniel Baird’s mother, who set up the Foundation, said: “In the year ending March 2020, there were around 46,000 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in England and Wales. And whilst lockdown saw a reduction in knife crime, in the one week after lockdown, nine people in the UK still died from fatal stab wounds.

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. ”

The cabinet, with kit inside, costs £500 fully installed.  Get in contact here.