It was opportune to present iBID data concerning the flame injury problem to the National Fire Sprinklers Network in Derbyshire on the same day as the National Burn Awareness Day 2015.  Fruitful discussions were had concerning the utility of burn injury information to support the argument for a widespread use of water sprinklers in domestic residences.

The Fire and Rescue Statistics Users Group asked for a presentation of iBID data to better understand the possibility and utility of combined analysis in order to better understand the burn injury problem beyond the usual statistics produced by the Fires and Rescue Services via the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

The first British Burn Association National Burn Awareness Day (NBAD) was held utilising data about each burn services’ activity from iBID provided in a series of reports. Details of the activities are available here:

http://www.britishburnassociation.org/news/article/bba-prevention-burns-awareness-day-22.10.14
http://www.capt.org.uk/year-planner/national-burn-awareness-day

Including an Early Day motion in Parliament:
http://www.edms.org.uk/2014-15/385.htm
http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2014-15/385

An invitation to present to the All – Party Parliamentary Fire Safety & Rescue Group resulted in a productive meeting at Westminster with a presentation of epidemiological data from iBID and details of the planned BBA National Burn Awareness Day.

It was concluded that the APPFSRG would ‘continue to work closely with iBID and the BBA on this matter, with the Fire Sector Federation, the Chief Fire Officers’ Association and the Childrens’ Burns Trust, to ensure that Government takes account of the alarming statistics, which have been assembled, and which you continue to gather.’

This conference aimed to help make it clear about ‘what matters’ in preventing serious burns and scalds among young children. The epidemiological data came from iBID which included the main causes of such injuries, their impact and who are most at risk. Other presentations focused on up-to-date methodology of ‘what works’ – the most effective ways to reduce deaths and serious injuries caused by burns and scalds. The intention was for workers in prevention to pick up ideas and strategies.

The 2nd BBA Prevention Study Day was held in Liverpool in association with the Annual BBA scientific  meeting.

Data from iBID was presented to illustrate the wider range of preventable injuries being seen by the burn services in England and Wales.

The 1st BBA Prevention Study Day was held in the Birmingham Council offices at the kind invitation mayor of Birmingham. The keynote speaker was the MP for Wakefield Mary Creigh who presented the successful outcome of her Bill to modify the UK Building regulations to introduce TMVs into new and renovated buildings.

Following an invitation to contribute to the Safety Conference in London from the Prevention Committee of the International Society Burn Injury (ISBI), a paper workers was presented displaying for the first time the value of combining data from iBID and hospital episode statistics (HES), which is data from all NHS providers searched and filtered to reflect only burn injuries.

Combine the datasets allowed an estimation of the true extent of burn injury admissions in England and Wales with an estimation of the number of cases each year under each of the major causation headings.

Mary Creagh MP welcomed the Labour Government’s announcement that it is to change building regulations to ensure all baths in new bathrooms are equipped with a Thermostatic Mixing Valve (TMV).  Ms Creagh has led a 3 year long ‘Hot Water Burns Like Fire’ campaign to reduce scalding injuries in the home.  Plastic surgeons and accident prevention charities have all welcomed the change in the law as a significant step forward for home safety.

Following a lengthy campaign headed by the member of Parliament for Wakefield, Mary Creagh there has been a successful alteration to English legislation requiring the incorporation of thermistor mixing valves (TMVs) in all new and renovated properties  as part of the revised building regulations.  The success of this campaign was based on contributions from many experts and included the use of statistics derived from the International Burn Injury Database (iBID).  This once again demonstrated the value and power of comprehensive national statistics collected over a significant period of time when used to inform political debate.