Paramedics: ready for terrorism?

Celebrations that followed the 2005 announcement of London's successful winning bid to host the 2012 Olympics were dramatically curtailed the following day as the UK witnessed its first terrorist suicide attack leaving 52 innocent people dead and over 700 injured, many seriously.

In order to manage such an event, ambulance services are required to have a major incident or emergency preparedness (EP) plan, and though terrorism is not generally associated with the UK, many key management objectives remain consistent across the globe, most notably, triage. Effective triage offers the greatest chance of survival and resources management (Moore, 2006; Akhtar, 2010). The provision of effective, life preserving triage is best achieved through integrated working with the other emergency services. Ambulance services have a distinct role as part of the multi-agency civil protection approach—and as part of the ‘vanguard of the emergency response’ (Civil Contingencies Act, 2004).