BLiSP. The ultimate ‘bag’ for life...

A recent article in the Daily Mirror and a number of other national newspapers has highlighted the plight of premature babies and lent support to the case for using a bpi.healthcare product. The story told how a now six month old baby girl was born prematurely in the back of an ambulance at the start of 2010. With such preterm babies facing an increased risk of hypothermia due to their extreme sensitivity to low temperatures, one of the paramedics involved in the child’s delivery was desperate to find a way of keeping the infant warm until her arrival at hospital. As incubators are too bulky to fit into an ambulance, he needed to find an alternative - eventually improvising with a clinical waste sack. Whilst the sack used was from the bpi.healthcare range, the leading manufacturer of waste sacks, protective aprons, mattress protectors and other items for the healthcare sector actually offers another product more suited to the task. The ‘Baby Life Support Pouch’ (BLiSP) is believed to be the first solution of its kind and is manufactured by bpi.healthcare on behalf of BLiSP’s inventors and distributors, Neonatal Developments. It offers a safer and more reliable alternative to the use of plastic bags and sheets to wrap preterm babies before they can be placed into an incubator – a practice which remains commonplace in many UK hospitals. Unlike these bags and sheets, which are primarily designed for other applications, BLiSP has been created specifically for purpose. Not only does its production from polythene help premature babies to conserve body heat, but it enjoys a clear construction allowing greater visibility of the infant inside and by virtue, increased ease of monitoring. Access is vastly improved too. As medical staff may need access to a preterm baby quickly during its first few moments of life in order to carry out resuscitation or to administer treatment, BLiSP benefits from re-closable access points. Special access points also make the insertion of ventilator tubing, venous and arterials line easier. With BliSP, unlike with ordinary plastic bags and sheets, there is no need to cut holes with scissors or other instruments to accommodate these lines, saving time and reducing the risk of potential injury to the child. BLiSP can also be removed without dislodging these lines once the baby reaches an incubator, whilst a centre access point provides good accessibility to the umbilicus and clamp. Touched by the case of the baby in the story, bpi.healthcare and Neonatal Developments are now working to increase the use of BLiSP by more of the country’s ambulance services and NHS Trusts. The product is already employed by many healthcare providers in the UK, Japan and France and is attracting interest from others around the world. Commenting on the story, Lorcan Mekitarian, Sales Director at bpi.healthcare, said: “The quick thinking and initiative of the paramedic mentioned in the story have to be commended but we feel he shouldn’t have been faced with the need to improvise in the first place. Many healthcare providers rely on plastic bags to prevent heat loss in premature babies but these are not CE marked for medical use or risk assessed to ISO 14791. BLiSP is. It’s also designed specifically for purpose and as such offers a range of benefits from increased ease of access to full product traceability.” William Yonge, Operations Director at Neonatal Developments added: “The MHRA has recently issued a Medical Device Alert (Ref: MDA/2010/001) concerning ‘Use of products, other than those that are CE-marked as medical devices, for clinical purposes,’ which says users should be ‘aware of the risks associated with and, where possible, avoid the use.... of products other than those CE-marked as medical devices in clinical settings, particularly when CE-marked medical devices that are specifically designed and manufactured to be used for that clinical purpose are available. “With this in mind and with the case of the baby featured in the Mirror story serving as a particularly poignant example, we want to ensure more healthcare organisations are aware of their options and of BLiSP - a low cost, highly effective solution to their needs.” ENDS Images: BLiSP.jpg

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