LIFE-saving kits to control bleeding after someone suffers a traumatic injury will be installed at Emersons Green Village Hall and Pucklechurch Community Centre.
The bleed control kits are being installed on the side of defibrillators at 144 sites across the Avon & Somerset Police region, in a project the force is coordinating and funding with NHS England South West and defibrillator manufacturer HeartSafe.
They include dressings and tourniquets to help manage bleeding, as well as surgical gloves, scissors and a colour-coded instruction guide on what to use depending on the type of injury being treated.
The initiative is part of police work around knife crime, but the kits can be used in any incident where a person is suffering from major bleeding, whatever the cause.
The idea is for people to use them in the time between a 999 call and the arrival of an ambulance, in any life-threatening emergency involving major bleeding.
Police knife crime lead Chief Inspector Mike Vass, said: “We employ a number of different tactics to deal with knife crime and prevent it at the source but in the unfortunate event that a person is seriously injured, we hope that these kits will go some way to preventing tragic loss of life.”
NHS England South West medical director Dr Michael Marsh said: “NHS ambulance crews and trauma teams do a great job when confronted with a patient who’s losing a lot of blood, but we wanted to go further in those crucial minutes when an ambulance was still on its way.”
You can find out more about bleed kits and their locations at www.heartsafe.org.uk.