Speciality Oxygen Service Ltd.

It is a terrifying indictment of our society, both at home and abroad, that more and more innocent employees are exposed to the threat of serious life-threatening assault during their normal working life than ever before. Despite the Government’s best efforts, the numbers of attacks and levels of violence used are rising rapidly, with seemingly little anyone can do to tackle it effectively. Regardless of whether you are a freelance journalist, a prison officer, a security supervisor at a nightclub, a close protection officer, a corporate employee in volatile regions, railway and airline crew, or even a teacher, the risks are the now similar whether working at home or abroad.

The Government, and some employers, will have you believe that the chances are still small and in effect they are right but what happens if the unexpected (yet often predictable) does occur? What if you, your colleagues or any of your clients become a victim of a life threatening injury? For example, would you know what to do to save somebody’s life if they were stabbed, shot or caught in a blast? In these situations time to effective treatment can, and does, make the difference between life and death! Furthermore, it is not always just a case of waiting for an ambulance to turn up, most paramedics have never seen injuries of this type in real life, and they don’t have the necessary equipment to treat the wounds when they do arrive! As such it is possible the only person who could literally save a life is you!

Unfortunately we’re not talking about the techniques taught on a ‘first aid at work’ course either. First aid does not arm you with either the knowledge or skills to treat a person with a life threatening traumatic condition. The limitations of first aid training have been demonstrated recently in a series of studies undertaken by the military of several countries. Soldiers killed in action from Vietnam onwards were studied to see if they all died from mortal wounds. Shockingly, over 20% of all those killed (10,000+ in Vietnam alone!), could have been saved if they had received simple, effective treatment at the scene. This awful statistic has been replicated in conflicts up to and including Gulf War 1 and Somalia. As a result the military were prompted to completely revise their training techniques and equipment for all soldiers on the battlefield, with incredible results. Thousands of lives (both soldiers and civilian) have been saved as a result of this shift in training over the past 5 years, and more continue to be saved on a daily basis.

The benefit of this specialist training has been recognised as invaluable to certain specialist units, with the result that the additional skills have been taught to police tactical firearms officers, prison staff, close protection officers and urban search and rescue teams for the treatment of violent life threatening injuries. But as we outlined above, these units are all specialists operating in proximity with the military, and have a duty of care to their staff and clients.

At Speciality Oxygen Ltd, we have had many years of experience in treating these types of injuries in both the military and civilian environment. Our doctors and paramedics have worked in some of the most dangerous places and on some of the best pre-hospital medical services in the World. Indeed we actually teach the military doctors and medics, some specialist firearms officers, USAR teams and prison staff how to deal with these conditions. We know what actually works, how best to apply it and, just as important, we recognise that there are other groups of professionals who are just as likely to be faced with extreme violence in the course of their work. Furthermore, it can be argued that where a threat exists, all employers have a duty of care to both their staff and clients to provide a higher level of care when that knowledge and training exists. Until now, these techniques and information have not been available to the wider public, but with the increasing threat to professionals Speciality Oxygen Ltd have developed a range of bespoke courses to offer to high-risk groups from complete novice to qualified medical professionals.

We sincerely believe that the only way to learn effectively is to employ doctors and paramedics who actually use and teach these skills on a daily basis. Our strength lies in the fact that we use instructors who teach and assess other doctors and paramedics to ensure they meet the necessary levels both in the military and on Helicopter Emergency Medical Services. We differ from other courses by the nature of our professional and operational qualifications – we are not soldiers who have attended a medical course and then teach it, rather, we provide doctors and medics with masses of relevant operational experience to pass on their expertise to you.

Like most people, we hope it never happens, but we also know that frequently it can and does! We want to train you to know how to utilise your skills to save someone’s life should the worst happen and the need arise. There is nothing worse than wishing you could have done something, too late after the event.

For further information please see our range of specialist training courses, complete the quotation form so that we can evaluate your training needs, or contact us.