What is a major incident?

The Department of Health’s Strategic National Guidance to the NHS for Major Incident Emergency Planning (2005) defines a major incident as any occurrence that presents a serious threat to the health of the community, disruption to the service or causes such numbers or types of casualties as to require special arrangements to be implemented by hospitals, ambulance trusts or primary care organizations.

Major incidents (MI) constitutes a major global public health problem affecting both urban and rural areas.

Role of air ambulances/medevac in major incidents

Air Ambulances can contribute to major incident management with:

• Transportation of equipment, personnel, and patients
• Overhead surveillance
• Search and rescue

To read more about major incident management particularly about the challenges in Africa, read our article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dealing-major-incidents-africa-flying-doctors-nigeria