Testimonials

I first met Dr. Tony Bleetman in 1998, in his capacity as police surgeon for Northants Police, and when he assisted on an Officer Safety train the trainer event, which my agency were running. 

At the time, I worked as the Senior Instructor and policy expert for Use of Force, for the detection wing of HM Customs & Excise. HM Customs Operational anti-Smuggling Directorate had committed to a  fundamental change in its cultural and technical approach to arrest and restraint training. 

 

Tony subsequently volunteered to provide, pro bono, his expertise and keen insight on Use of force issues. He became a highly valued and influential advocate for greater awareness amongst frontline staff, and their strategic leaders, of the injury implications and impacts of arrest and restraint techniques on both the officer and subject.

 

He also became de facto, a key subject matter expert, establishing an Enforcement-wide culture of awareness and ethical professionalism in this highly sensitive area of work.

 

He provided robust models for forensic evidence collecting, when diagnosing use of force incidents, and provided operational staff and managers with a far better understanding of the medical implications of dynamic skills in both training and operational environments.

 

His tireless support of the training and policy development to HMC&E, which endured throughout the ultimate evolution of UK Border Force, delivered much needed and  timely influence on a rapidly transforming organisation. The scope and scale of his contributions to this discrete but highly impactive aspect of law enforcement , cannot be overstated.

 

I will always be immensely grateful to him, for his many years of technical and indeed moral support, and am very happy to provide this sincere and heartfelt testimonial.

 

4th June 2020 – A Kirk,  Senior Assurance Manager - Home Office ( retired)

 

Dr Bleetman is an experienced and respected medical expert who provides clear, succinct, balanced reports and risk assessments in relation to the management of violence and aggression.

I first became aware of his work when we were both trustees of the Control and Restraint (General Services) Association. At that time Dr Bleetman, along with his colleague Peter Boatman, provided invaluable advice and support to a number of training organisations. They also made a contribution to the review into the routine use of force in the juvenile justice service, which was commissioned by the UK Government following the death of Gareth Myatt, in 2004.

More recently, I have worked with him to improve the quality of training and reduce unnecessary risk, restraint and restriction in health and children's services.

He is always willing to constructively challenge existing practices but also change his own opinion if the balance of evidence changes. He brings a practical, realistic perspective to risk assessment, recognising that there are often no zero risk options. By highlighting the relative medical risks associated with the different scenarios presented to him, he enables providers to consider and select the best available risk reduction measures, paying due regard to the particular circumstances of the service setting concerned.

I look forward to working with him in the future.

Bernard Allen  B.A, Psy., P.G.C.E., D.A.E.S., M.B.P.S.

 

Dr Bleetman is an experienced and respected medical expert who provides clear, succinct, balanced reports and risk assessments in relation to the management of violence and aggression.

I first became aware of his work when we were both trustees of the Control and Restraint (General Services) Association. At that time Dr Bleetman, along with his colleague Peter Boatman, provided invaluable advice and support to a number of training organisations. They also made a contribution to the review into the routine use of force in the juvenile justice service, which was commissioned by the UK Government following the death of Gareth Myatt, in 2004.

More recently, I have worked with him to improve the quality of training and reduce unnecessary risk, restraint and restriction in health and children's services.

He is always willing to constructively challenge existing practices but also change his own opinion if the balance of evidence changes. He brings a practical, realistic perspective to risk assessment, recognising that there are often no zero risk options. By highlighting the relative medical risks associated with the different scenarios presented to him, he enables providers to consider and select the best available risk reduction measures, paying due regard to the particular circumstances of the service setting concerned.

I look forward to working with him in the future.

Bernard Allen  B.A, Psy., P.G.C.E., D.A.E.S., M.B.P.S.

 

"We instructed Mr Eric Baskind and Dr Tony Bleetman to assess the Efficacy and Safety of Bolawrap, with a view to introducing it to UK Police Forces. Their attention to detail, expertise and experience in this field is unparalleled and it showed in a report that will undoubtedly help keep Police officers and the people they have to restrain that much safer. Outstanding work and I'm sure we will call on their assistance again in due course".

 

Doug Sear, Director of Sales. 

Emergency Protection Limited.

 

Supplying risk reduction measures in the form of Soft Restraint products and associated restraint instructor qualifications for use on land, at sea and in the air, comes with it’s own very unique risk profile.
Our Soft Restraint products have been medically reviewed over the last decade by Dr Tony Bleetman, the intricate processes involved with developing specialist training and products for market calls for stringent quality control measures and a transparency of our audit trail. Tony’s Stirling reputation and extraordinary, in-depth knowledge of all things medical, his operational experience and real world input is a breath of fresh air in the world of prescribed academia. This has been a key factor for us in reshaping the future image of restraint equipment worldwide.
Tony has supported us immensely with our new products and well established brands alike - whilst taking a genuine interest in the ethics and safety processes of such devices entering the market, and ultimately, how their integrity will be maintained.
Long may the succesful alliance continue!
When you get your gift drop me an image of you modelling 
Doug Melia, Soft Restraint Systems

 

My name is Mark Dawes and I am one of the Directors of NFPS Ltd. We are a training company and we have been in business for almost 30 years now and I’ve also worked as an Expert Witness with regards to the use of force. 

 

I initially met Tony Bleetman as a result of a recommendation made to me by the late and great Peter Boatman when I was looking for someone to medically review and assess our training programme. 

 

Since that initial meeting I have worked with Tony for many years now and Tony is the only person I will go to for our medical reviews and medical risk assessments for the following reasons.

 

Tony is unique in this field. He is possibly the only medical professional I know who actually understands the different and broad spectrums of operational environments that the physical skills are used in, the value of reporting and the difficulties of training adult learners in skills that they need to have taught to them, such as: the police service, mental health, children’s homes, healthcare settings, educational environment, and this is because he has actually taken part in many of the programmes he reviews. 

 

Tony also understands the importance of the demographic differences so his medical reviews and risk assessments will take into consideration the fitness levels of your staff, what the population are that your staff are managing, the impact of the environment they are working in, what’s happened in the last year and where you want to get to. 

 

This helps you (and organisations like yours) understand more clearly what you need (as opposed to what you may think you want) , which will help you plan for and reduce the risk from any potential foreseeable harm, injury or death that could have possibly occur as a result of your staff using force.

 

This stops you wasting time and money on having someone teaching your staff unnecessary skills and helps your organisation save money in terms of direct costs, such as: producing a shorter and more efficient training programme, as well as the unreported indirect costs, such as: less staff off sick due to unnecessary injury, less complaints, less litigation, less legal fees, etc.

 

One organisation that I worked with, with the help of Tony’s input with regards to the medical review and assessment of our training, told me that within six months we had saved them approximately one-half a million pounds in direct and indirect costs.

 

In addition, by working in partnership with Tony I have been able to go into organisations who are having issues with their current skill set, discuss the issues with the staff and management, identify the skills gap and the solution, produce the necessary paperwork (including the risk assessment), video the technique that has been developed, send that to Tony and get that specific technique medically approved within a day. 

 

I did this with one school who up until I was invited in had been trying to find a solution to the problem for months and all they were getting back from their training provider was that ‘they had to use the skills in the ‘approved’ programme that they were delivering’. 

 

With Tony’s help and input we managed to solve that for them in one day. 

 

So, would I recommend Tony? Every day and twice on Sunday.  

 

I wouldn’t go anywhere else for a medical review because I don’t know any other medical professional anywhere who has the knowledge of our industry combined with a broader and in-depth understanding of all of the other factors I have mentioned above.

 

Mark Dawes

Director, NFPS Ltd.