Preparing to treat victims of knife crime on the railway network

The UK has seen a spate of attacks on the rail network in recent weeks. Incidents at Ilford Station, on the London/Essex border, where a police officer was attacked with a knife, Manchester Victoria where three people, again including a police officer were stabbed and at Tulse Hill in South London where a man wielding a machete on the platform was tasered and detained. Express News item: London station horror: ‘Man with machete’ terrifies commuters - police storm Tulse Hill

There was also the shocking fatality on a train from Guildford, Surrey where a man was attacked with a knife in front of his young son. BBC News item : Surrey train stabbing: Man charged with murder

Sadly, these four incidents took place over an eight-week period either side of Christmas and demonstrate a rise in violent crime in and around transport hubs. 61,159 crimes were recorded on the rail network, with offences involving knives or other weapons rising by 46 per cent.

These crimes recorded in 2017/18, were up from 52,235 during the previous 12 months. It can be argued that this increase is partly due to improvements in how crime is recorded, which has increased accuracy and given victims and witnesses more confidence to report it.

The fact remains, however, that staff, customers and as we have seen, even the police are vulnerable to violent attacks across the rail network. Both inside and outside of stations and on the trains themselves.

So, what’s the answer?

Clearly there is a wider piece of work required from the authorities around the causes of violent crime and the reason people carry weapons, but we can be much more responsive in the race to save the lives of trauma victims. We know that the Platinum Ten Minutes following a traumatic incident is crucial to ensure survival - a trauma victim can bleed to death often before even the quickest of emergency services can arrive at the scene. We have developed solutions that educate, equip and empower users to help in a bleeding emergency before professional help arrives.

TyTek Medical’s PTENSYS (Platinum TEN SYStem) range of products from a full triage and trauma care system to wall mounted bleeding control stations. These can be strategically positioned on stations and on trains to ensure that anyone affected in the very worst of circumstances has access to the very best in trauma care.

Our products were initially developed for the military, but as we have seen, civilians are receiving military style injuries, so we have made them more widely available.

Ultimately PTENSYS is a next generation ‘insurance policy’ that prepares you for virtually every emergency care situation and is literally an ‘out of the box’ duty of care strategy.

If you need unparalleled emergency preparedness contact us today