Citation

Stephenson J, Andrews L, Moore F. Trauma (Sage) 2015; 17(2): 140-141.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1460408614561173

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The UK Ambulance services are constantly reviewing their capability to respond to different emergency scenarios. Following the international terrorism incidents involving marauding gunmen in Mumbai and the attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore combined with the two high-profile English incidents of Derek Bird in Cumbria and Raoul Moat in Northumberland, it was identified that there was a requirement to develop a capability to be able to deploy appropriately trained ambulance staff at a firearms incident capable of providing immediately necessary treatment in an area that would previously have been regarded as within the inner cordon and the preserve of the armed response officers until the area had been declared completely safe. 'The lack of a standardised mass-casualty triage system that is well validated, reliable, and uniformly accepted, remains an important gap'.1

The UK Ambulance Services developed a training package for staff to work within the inner cordon, once the armed response officers had cleared an area of immediately obvious threat. During this training, it was realised that ambulance staff needed a new way of working, triaging the patients, providing immediately necessary treatment and moving on to the next casualty. This was a big step away from previous civilian practice, and it was soon apparent that the triage sieve in use from JRCALC 20062 needed updating to take account of changes in clinical practice particularly around the widespread introduction of training and equipment to manage catastrophic haemorrhage.

Initial changes to the triage sieve were made in 2011...

Language: en