EMERGENCY Room staff at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust are to teach young people how to treat stab wounds until medical help arrives.

Basic life-saving skills will be shown, as well as graphic images of wounds and medical procedures like open-heart surgery on the street.

ED consultant Nia Jones said: “We teach basic skills that can be easily remembered and applied to individuals or friends if they are at the scene of a stabbing.

“This includes not removing a blade, putting pressure on a wound and keeping the victim calm.

“The care they could administer to minimise blood loss between the incident and getting to A&E is crucial.”

The team will go into community centres, youth groups, schools and prisons outside working hours.

“We’re not teaching them to be doctors, but to have some knowledge so they don’t feel helpless in that situation,” said Nia.

“We want to get more colleagues within our ED departments at Ealing and Northwick Park involved.”