They lost their lives in a senseless act of violence, but their legacy can prevent others from dying at night in Manchester city centre.
Manchester City Council has distributed nearly 200 emergency trauma kits to hospitality establishments across the city this week in the hope of preventing deaths in the event of an accident or terrorist attack such as the Manchester Arena bombing that killed 22 people in 2017.
The investigation into the bombing identified a number of problems with the emergency response, including what was known as the “gap in care,” a term the investigation used to describe the delay between the bomb detonating and the arrival of emergency services.
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British Transport Police officers trained in first aid were on the scene within minutes. However, it took around thirty minutes for ambulances to arrive at the arena and only one paramedic was on site for the first 40 minutes after the explosion.
This meant that citizens had to try to rescue seriously injured people with whatever they had at their disposal. In one case, a billboard was used as a stretcher and a woman’s belt was used as a tourniquet.
Indeed, the chairman of the inquiry, Sir John Saunders, said he could not rule out the possibility that two of the 22 victims, Saffie-Rose Roussos and John Atkinson, would have survived if they had received “different treatment and care”.
And its report, published in November 2022, asked: “How can we make the gap in care as short as possible? And how can we achieve a situation where those present on the scene can take life-saving measures before professional clinical staff arrive?”
Providing emergency trauma kits to hundreds of venues is part of the council’s response to these issues. Every city centre hotel, as well as a hundred bars, restaurants and pubs, will now be provided with an emergency trauma kit – and there are plans to roll this out to even more venues in the future.
Councillor Lee-Ann Igbon, executive member of Vibrant Neighbourhoods, said the launch of the kits “represents an important measure to help close the gap in care across Manchester and ensure no one dies because help is too far away.”
“Manchester is, by and large, a safe and welcoming city. But while the vast majority of days out and nights out pass without incident, we focus on those isolated cases where people are put at risk,” Ms Igbon said.
She added that over 2 million tourists visit Manchester every year and that 90,000 people work in the hospitality sector across the region.
“Manchester is clearly a place where people always want to be. In an ideal world these kits would never be used – but despite our best efforts, serious violence can and does occur. We want to ensure that when such cases occur, lives can be saved locally.”
The Public Access Trauma Kits (PACT) contain tourniquets, bandages, trauma dressings and instructions on how to use the items, as well as PPE including medical masks, gloves and goggles.
And this week, hospitality workers in Manchester who volunteered for the programme received a demonstration at Manchester’s Albert Hall from Scott Barry-Godsell, a former firefighter and medical technician who works at Steroplast.
He demonstrated how to apply a tourniquet, apply wound dressings with sufficient pressure, make a makeshift sling out of a triangular bandage and place a person in the recovery position – with City Councilor Carmine Grimshaw as a demonstration.
The programme is a partnership between the city council and CityCo, a management company for Manchester city centre, which works with the Manchester Accommodation Business Improvement District, which was set up to bring overnight guests to Manchester. The kits were purchased by the city council from Steroplast, a medical supplies supplier operating across the UK.
Kumar Mishra, chair of Manchester ABID, said: “We know we have a wonderful food and culture scene here and we want to get more tourists to experience it – but none of that is possible if our city is not safe. Adopting this initiative was a no-brainer.”
The initiative follows the announcement in the King’s Speech that the new Labour Government has committed to introducing Martyn’s Law as part of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill. This will require medium and larger venues to have anti-terrorism security measures in place.
The law is named after Martyn Hett, one of the 22 people tragically killed in the 2017 attack. His mother Figen Murray, who spent her career as a consultant, completed a master’s degree in counterterrorism after his death and is the driving force behind the new law. In May, she completed a 200-mile march from Manchester to Downing Street to raise awareness of her campaign and put pressure on the then government to act.
Figen, who spoke to MEN at the launch of the PACT kits, was enthusiastic about the new government’s commitment to Martyn’s Law, adding: “This is the third time it’s been mentioned in a King’s Speech. But this time it feels different because I’ve had meetings with ministers in the new government and for the first time ever I feel like the end is in sight, which is great.”
She is also encouraged by the introduction of the medical kits: “All of this should have been introduced years ago, but I think these kits will save lives. This is groundbreaking and will make Manchester much more resilient.”
“This is a real milestone, it proves once again how great Manchester is at taking the initiative. (The city council) has listened to the inquiry and learned lessons from it – they’re not just empty words when they say that, action has been taken.”
Figen is fully trained in first aid herself, having learned this through a course organized by Steroplast. Two other families who lost loved ones in the attack attended, as did other survivors and members of the legal team representing the group.
“When I was doing the exam and heard that someone could bleed to death in 3 to 5 minutes, I was totally shocked,” Figen said. “I thought, I have to learn how to do that.” She now carries a tourniquet (a hook-like plastic device that allows you to make a makeshift tourniquet out of a piece of cloth to prevent major blood loss) at all times – “I keep one in every purse I carry.”
Figen has been widely praised for her response to the tragedy. As well as being a campaigner for Martyn’s Law, she has publicly expressed her forgiveness for the perpetrator and regularly goes to schools to talk to students about radicalisation.
“Having my son’s ashes on the bookshelf at home is a good motivator,” she says. “I do what I do because I feel it’s the right thing. It’s a choice. When really bad things happen in life, we have a choice about how we respond – we sink or swim.
“I could be consumed by anger, hatred, the desire for revenge and punishment – but forgiveness was easier because I felt it freed me from inner bitterness and anger. It just helped me cope.”
“That’s what drives me: the will to ensure that other people don’t have to have their children’s ashes on their bookshelves.”
Danielle Doyle, strategic director for licensing at Manchester City Council, said recent events had provided a “sobering reminder” of the violence in society.
“It’s very depressing that we’ll never be able to fully iron out that fact,” she said. “But we can do what we can, do our best to learn the lessons we can from these events and continue to try to improve our infrastructure, our preparedness and our response. That’s what today is about.”
