April 2003
From BMJ-British Medical Journal
Too few doctors know how to respond to a terrorist attack Letter: Medical staff need to be aware of major incident planning BMJ Volume 326, p 762 Not enough medical staff are aware of their role in the event of a terrorist attack, according to a letter in this week's BMJ.Researchers surveyed 107 doctors in North Bristol NHS Trust about the local major incident plan. All these doctors would have a role in the mobile medical team if they were on duty during a major incident. Of the 77 doctors who replied, 69 were aware of the existence of the plan, but only 26 had read part or all of it. Only 11 of the responding doctors were aware of their potential role in the mobile medical team. Of these 11 doctors, only three thought themselves adequately trained for this position, and all three had been trained as medical incident officers. "As a trust we are currently considering several measures to improve on our results," say the authors. "We suspect, however, that our findings are not unique and encourage other acute trusts to look closely at their staff's knowledge and training and act accordingly," they conclude. |