Knife crime: the volunteer doctors teaching lifesaving skills to teenagers

The current level of knife crime in the UK has been termed an epidemic by the media and a national emergency by senior police officers.12

In the year to June 2019 the police recorded 44 076 knife crimes, a rise of a 7% on the previous year,3 and NHS figures show 4986 emergency hospital admissions for blade injuries in 2017-18, a rise of almost 14% on the year before.4

But an upsurge in knife attacks is no new phenomenon. As medical students at Liverpool University in 2008 Simon Jackson and Nick Rhead volunteered at a local youth offending team and were shocked to learn about young people’s experiences of violence and violent injuries. They realised that many victims could have had better outcomes if, instead of …