Should New South Wales hospital disaster teams be sent to major incident sites?
GROUND: The aim of the present review was to assess the suitability of hospital disaster medical teams’ training, personal safety and medical equipment for site casualty work at multiple casualty incidents (MCI), and to compare this with retrieval teams who routinely provide pre-hospital trauma care. The options for the provision of a site medical response based upon international and Australian disaster planning guidelines are also reviewed. METHODS: A questionnaire was mailed to all doctors dispatched to the 1997 Thredbo disaster as part of trauma service (TS) hospital medical teams, medical commanders or Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) crew. Doctors with Sydney retrieval services (SRS) experience were compared with those without SRS experience in regard to the reported level of relevant training and experience as defined by current Australian guidelines and the Education and Training in Disaster Medicine Curriculum, Scientific Committee of the International Society of Di
