After seeing it all in his 25 years serving as a doorman in Portsmouth, Phil Carr, 45, is now bidding to save lives with trauma kit launch.

Speaking of the trauma kit project backed by Portsmouth City Council, Phil Carr, who now runs a security firm Forseti Training, said: “I have previously worked within the night-time economy for over 25 years and have unfortunately witnessed some truly horrible scenes.

“My goal is to help the community which I have been a part of for so long but also provide a service to help make our cities and venues a safer place to be. Knife crime in the UK has doubled between 2011 and 2019 and continues to climb at an alarming rate. Although most late-night venues have now moved towards plastics over glass containers, the level of major trauma seen within the night-time economy has not diminished.”

Phil Carr recorded that most security staff are not trained to the required standard – meaning they would currently “not know what to do” if someone was “bleeding out” and added that tragic events like the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017 where 23 people were killed and over 1,000 injured – many of whom were children – has shown the need for trained first aiders with trauma care skills and equipment.

“The current strain placed on our emergency services to provide critical response and aid to people in need is at an all-time high,” he continued. “Add in the recent pandemic and our systems are verging on collapse.

“In the case of major trauma, like a stabbing or severe laceration, you can bleed out within three to five minutes. The current response time for an ambulance to attend a call out is 10 minutes.

“This leaves a large gap between incident and response, one that has to be filled by the front-line services such as workplace first-aiders and security personnel.”

Trauma Bleed Kit and training of staff will save lives

As such, the response of security staff helps save people from possible death. The reviews from Manchester Arena bombing have led to a change in policy regarding security personnel and the required first aid training as part of the pending Martyn’s Law. The government announced that public venues with a capacity of more than 100 people will need to undertake activities to improve protective security along with staff training.

Phil Carr said: “This policy shift is going to be huge and affect so many places…just imagine anywhere where more than 100 people can gather is a lot of places and businesses.”

The Trauma Bleed Kit allows staff to deal with up to four mild/moderate/severe bleeds. A pack contains one windlass tourniquet, four wound-clot patches, two trauma dressings, one thermal blanket, one set of shears, a single biohazard waste bag, one face-shield and two pairs of gloves.

The kits come in a heat-sealed pouch with a four-year life after which the wound-clot dressing and trauma dressings need to be replaced. Remote or in-person learning is offered by Forseti Training to venues.

Phil Carr said: “I feel passionate about my new business and the good I could do with it.”

It is a sentiment shared by councillors as Councillor Steve Pitt, culture, leisure and economic development boss at the council, said: “I’m pleased we are supporting such a worthwhile scheme and the response from venues has been positive. It’s important we work alongside businesses to help residents feel safe and secure.”

Councillor Jason Fazackarley, safety in the community leader at the council, added: “The impacts of knife crime are severe and anything we can do to lessen the impacts and reduce the risk of serious harm is valuable.”

Challenges of being on the door

Speaking of the challenges of “being on the door”, Phil said: “The job we do is unique in the fact we do seem to be vilified from all angles. We get involved (in incidents) then we are thugs. If we don’t get involved we are weak. If we refuse entry we are racists, sexists or jobsworths. Whatever we do it is never right and we are never thanked unless it is by people in the industry.

“We are human. I would ask anyone how much abuse they are willing to take before they would verbally retaliate. Sometimes I have stood there for over 30 minutes having people verbally abuse me and make threats against my family and me. We all have our limits.

“I personally have had to deal with people that have been spiked, glassed, stabbed, have taken drug overdoses, are verging on psychosis due to certain drug use, and have been physically and sexually assaulted.

“We know that in today’s society probably around 30 to 40 per cent of certain demographics will be carrying some kind of bladed article, and when things turn physical, some pull it out for “protection”. But if you carry it there is intent to use it no matter what the reason.

“Drug use has spiked within our society to extreme levels. Indeed, in many of the incidents we deal with, drugs play a role in the behaviours of the people, and it is never positive. We do this job, we know all this, yet we continue to put ourselves in the way and deal with all these facts. I have had friends put in hospital, I myself have taken a couple of trips after being eye gouged and suffering concussion from incidents within security roles.

“I have spent whole days not getting out of bed because of what I have witnessed the night before…we suffer in silence, we don’t really talk, and actually in the end most doormen that have been doing the job for more than a few years develop a very macabre sense of humour about the stuff we deal with as our way of processing it.”

And this is all despite a meagre £2.50 pay rise in nearly 30 years. Yet Phil’s determination to help others and his sense of community-spirit and responsibility is what drives him on.

“I started Forseti Training LTD so I could have a job that I enjoyed doing and give something back. Knowing that by teaching others, whether it is first aid or the trauma kit training, that somewhere that knowledge is going to save a life is everything. That’s the ethos behind our kits.

“Just look at the news headlines today, it’s knife attacks and trauma events. Trauma is the biggest killer of under 40s in this country…and our kits can help to change that. They can keep people alive until our amazing emergency services can arrive, and that is why I am so passionate about getting as much training and as many of these kits out there as I can.”

For trauma kits and/or training go to https://www.forsetitraining.com/ or contact admin@forsetitraining.com.

(Source: The Portsmouth News)