Disasters, emergencies, incidents, and major incidents - they all come back to the same thing regardless of what they are called. The common denominator is that there is loss of life, injury to people and animals and damage and destruction of property. The management of such events relies on four phases: 1. Prevention 2. Preparation 3. Response 4. Recovery Each of these phases is managed in a different way and often by different teams. Here, concentration has been given to phases 2 and 3, with particular emphasis on phase 3, Response. The words used to describe such events are often related to legislation. The terminology is detailed later. However, whatever the description, whenever prevention is not possible, or fails, then the need is to respond. Response is always better when the responders are prepared. Training is a major part of response preparation and this book is designed to assist those in the health industry who need to be ready when something happens. One of the training packages for responders is the Major Incident Medical Management and Support (MIMMS) Course and this work was designed to supplement the manual prepared by Hodgetts and Macway-Jones(87) in the UK. Included is what the health services responder, who may be sent to an event in which the main concern is trauma, should know. Concentration is on the initial response and does not deal in any detail with hospital reaction, the public health aspects, or the mental health support that provides psychological help to victims and responders, and which are also essential parts of disaster management. People, in times of disaster, have always been quick to offer assistance. It is now well recognised however, that the 'enthusiastic amateur', whilst being a well meaning volunteer, isn't always what is needed. All too often such people have made things worse and have sometimes ended up as victims themselves. There is a place now for volunteers and there probably always will be. The big difference is that these people must be well informed, well trained and well practiced if they are to be effective. Fortunately such people and organisations do exist. Without the work of the St John Ambulance, the State Emergency Service, the Rural Fire Service the Red Cross and the Volunteer Rescue Association, to mention only a few, our response to disasters would be far less effective. There is a strong history of individuals being available to help the community in times of crisis. Mostly these people were volunteers but there has also always been the need for a core of professional support. In the recent past, professional support mechanisms have been developed from lessons learned, particularly to situations that need a rapid and well organised response. As lessons are learned from an analysis of events, philosophy and methods have changed. Our present system is not perfect and perhaps never will be. The need for an 'all-hazards approach' makes detailed planning very difficult and so there will probably always be criticisms about the way an event was handled. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, provided we learn from it. That means that this text is certainly not the 'last word' and revisions as we learn from experience will be inevitable. Because the author works primarily in New South Wales, many of the explanations and examples are specific to that state. In Australia disaster response is a State, rather than a Commonwealth, responsibility and consequently, and inevitably, there are differences in management between the states and territories within Australia. With the influence of Emergency Management Australia, these differences are being reduced. This means that across state and territory boundaries, assistance is common and interstate teams can be deployed and assimilated into the response rapidly, safely, effectively and with minimum explanation. This text sets out to increase the understanding of what is required, what is in place and how the processes of response are managed. By way of introduction and background, examples are given of those situations that have occurred, or could happen. Man Made Disasters has been divided into two distinct sections. Those which are related to structures or transport and those related directly to people. The first section, Chapter 3, includes: • Transport accidents involving land, rail, sea or air vehicles. • Collapse of buildings for reasons other than earthquakes or storms. • Industrial accidents, including the release of hazardous substances and nuclear events. A second section dealing with the consequences of the direct actions of people is separated as Chapter 4, entitled 'People Disasters'. Included are: • Crowd incidents involving sports and entertainment venues. • Terrorism From Chapter 4 on, the emphasis is on the Response phase and deals with organisation and response techniques in detail. Finally there is a section on terminology and abbreviations. An appendix details a typical disaster pack content. War, the greatest of all man made disasters is not considered in this text.

Katastrofer kräver omedelbara beslut och åtgärder för att minimera allvarliga konsekvenser. Undersökningar och analyser från tidigare katastrofer visar att utbildning, övning, samverkan och ledarskap behöver förbättras för att evidensbaserat beslutsfattande ska uppnås. I Sveriges hälso- och sjukvård är det regional Tjänsteman i Beredskap, TiB, som i de flesta fall initialt fattar de övergripande beslut om mobilisering och fördelning av resurser och behov av medicinsk kompetens vid katastrof och allvarlig händelse. Syftet med denna studie var att kartlägga den kunskap och erfarenhet som innehavare av funktionen TiB har för att vara förberedda för sin uppgift. Studien är kvantitativ och bygger på en enkät konstruerad av författaren som har skickats till innehavarna av funktionen regional TiB inom hälso- och sjukvård i Sverige. Resultatet analyserades med deskriptiv statistik och analytisk statistik. En jämförelse gjordes mellan de respondenter som hade medicinsk utbildningsbakgrund och de som inte hade sådan. Resultatet visar att det finns vissa skillnader beträffande kunskaper och erfarenheter och behovet av sådan. De som inte hade medicinsk utbildningsbakgrund hade övervägande specialkunskaper i katastrofmedicin och de ansåg också i högre grad att medicinsk kompetens var viktig för funktionen som TiB. Studiens resultat kan vara till stöd gällande utbildning och planering inför allvarliga händelser. / Disasters and major incidents require immediate decisions and actions to minimize serious consequences. Studies and analyzes from previous disasters show that education, practice, collaboration and management need to be improved. This together with learning from experiences will make the planning of relevant preparations easier. The purpose of this study was to do a survey of the knowledge and experience of a defined operative  level of strategic management (command and control) who can make the overall decisions regarding mobilization and distribution of resources, distribution of casualties and need of medical skills to be prepared  for their tasks in case of disaster and major incident. In Sweden this function is called Tjänsteman i Beredskap (TiB). The study is quantitative and based on a questionnaire constructed by the author and sent to the holders of the function TiB in Sweden. The results were analyzed by descriptive statistics and analytical statistics. A comparison was made between those respondents who had medical education background and those who did not have one. The result shows that there are some differences in knowledge and experience and the need for such. Those who had medical education background had vast expertise in disaster medicine and they also considered relatively more medical skills were important for the function of TiB. Study findings can provide support with training and planning for major events.

Introduktion: Sjuksköterskan inom ambulanssjukvården utsätts många gånger för det okända, de arbetar i utmanande miljöer och utför avancerad vård prehospitalt. Vid särskild händelse tilldelas första ambulans på plats rollen som sjukvårdsledning. Ofta tilldelas rollen utan möjlighet till förberedelser och med knapphändig information och en oro inför denna uppgift finns. Syfte: Att belysa sjuksköterskan i ambulans upplevelse av att vara i ledningsroll vid en särskild händelse. Metod: Studien har en kvalitativ design med induktiv ansats. Tolv sjuksköterskor verksamma i ambulanssjukvården i västra Sverige intervjuades via semistrukturerade intervjuer.  Innehållsanalys med manifest nivå användes som analysmetod. Resultat: Resultatet resulterade i fem teman: Att bli tilldelad utmaningen, Att ta sig an rollen, När känslorna tar över, Att uppnå kontroll och Erfarenhet skapar lugn. Slutsats: För sjuksköterskorna i studien var det en utmaning att ta sig an ledningsrollen vid särskild händelse. Ledningsrollen kunde leda till känslomässiga reaktioner och upplevdes påfrestande. Det fanns en strävan efter kontroll genom struktur, information och överblick.  Deltagarna i studien önskade att få öva mer och använda sin kunskap på de mindre skadehändelserna

<p>För att kunna erbjuda god och lättillgänglig hälso- och sjukvård vid stora olyckor och katastrofer krävs en katastrofberedskap grundad på planläggning, utbildning och övning. Sjukvårdens särskilda beredskap måste kunna hantera såväl den "lilla vardagsolyckan" som den stora olyckan eller katastrofen. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur enhetschefer och distriktssköterskor vid primärvården i två kommuner i Jämtlands län upplevde sig förberedda inför en katastrof eller en stor olycka där utryckning krävdes utanför vårdinrättningar till olycksplats. Syftet var även att undersöka hur katastrofberedskap prioriteras av enhetschefer. En intervjustudie har genomförts med tre enhetschefer och fem distriktssköterskor. Intervjuerna har analyserats med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Utifrån analysen skapades två<strong> </strong>kategorier: ”känsla av säkerhet”<strong> </strong>och ”organisation” samt fyra underkategorier ”beredskap”, ”prioritet”, ”förmåga” och<strong> </strong>”kunskap”. Huvudfyndet var att samtliga intervjudeltagare önskade ha övningar för att känna sig mer förberedd vid en stor olycka. I dagsläget övades det inte alls på katastrofberedskap.</p> / <p>In order to provide good and accessible healthcare in case of emergencies and disasters, an emergency plan based on planning, training and practice is required. Special care must be prepared to deal with both the ”small everyday accident” but also the major accident and disaster. The purpose of this study was to examine how unit managers and districtnurses in primary care in two municipalities in Jämtland county experience themselves prepared in case of a disaster or a major accident which requires emergency care facilities outside the unit. The aim was also to examine how emergency preparedness is a priority for the unit managers. An interview study has been carried out with three unitmanagers and five districtnurses. The interviews were analyzed with qualitative content analysis. Based on the analysis two categories were created: 'feeling of security "and" organization "and four sub-categories of" security "," priority "," ability "and" knowledge ". Major findings was that all the interview participants wished to have exercises to feel more prepared for a major accident. For the time being, no practice in disaster preparedness is carried out.</p>

För att kunna erbjuda god och lättillgänglig hälso- och sjukvård vid stora olyckor och katastrofer krävs en katastrofberedskap grundad på planläggning, utbildning och övning. Sjukvårdens särskilda beredskap måste kunna hantera såväl den "lilla vardagsolyckan" som den stora olyckan eller katastrofen. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur enhetschefer och distriktssköterskor vid primärvården i två kommuner i Jämtlands län upplevde sig förberedda inför en katastrof eller en stor olycka där utryckning krävdes utanför vårdinrättningar till olycksplats. Syftet var även att undersöka hur katastrofberedskap prioriteras av enhetschefer. En intervjustudie har genomförts med tre enhetschefer och fem distriktssköterskor. Intervjuerna har analyserats med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Utifrån analysen skapades två kategorier: ”känsla av säkerhet” och ”organisation” samt fyra underkategorier ”beredskap”, ”prioritet”, ”förmåga” och ”kunskap”. Huvudfyndet var att samtliga intervjudeltagare önskade ha övningar för att känna sig mer förberedd vid en stor olycka. I dagsläget övades det inte alls på katastrofberedskap. / In order to provide good and accessible healthcare in case of emergencies and disasters, an emergency plan based on planning, training and practice is required. Special care must be prepared to deal with both the ”small everyday accident” but also the major accident and disaster. The purpose of this study was to examine how unit managers and districtnurses in primary care in two municipalities in Jämtland county experience themselves prepared in case of a disaster or a major accident which requires emergency care facilities outside the unit. The aim was also to examine how emergency preparedness is a priority for the unit managers. An interview study has been carried out with three unitmanagers and five districtnurses. The interviews were analyzed with qualitative content analysis. Based on the analysis two categories were created: 'feeling of security "and" organization "and four sub-categories of" security "," priority "," ability "and" knowledge ". Major findings was that all the interview participants wished to have exercises to feel more prepared for a major accident. For the time being, no practice in disaster preparedness is carried out.

Background: The relevance of conducting this thesis is evident by the fact that bus and coach casualties have been “stubbornly stable” in Europe recent years and a need for investigating if a similar trend could be found in Sweden is therefore obvious. It was also important to add new knowledge to the bus and coach research in Sweden, since many areas were scarcely addressed. Aims: To describe bus and coach occupants’ injuries, crash and injury mechanisms generated in a traffic environment based on data from the medical sector. Additional aims were to investigate the injury reducing effect of a 3-point belt, the effect of cross-winds, and crucial factors in the emergency- and rescue response. Material and methods: Injury data analyses were based on a complete ten-year medical data set from a catchment-area with about 130,000 inhabitants. A number of crash studies with the scope in different crash phases were conducted by applying and elaborating the Haddon matrix as a framework. An additional framework, Protocol for Major Incidents was used in order to investi-gate the emergency- and rescue response to a severe coach crash. Results: Between the first and second five-year period, the incidence of injured in non-crash in-cidents was increased by 24%. In non-crash incidents, 54% were injured; 2/3 while alighting from a bus or coach. The pre-crash factor cross-wind, in addition to vehicle design, vehicle speed and road friction, was investigated in ten crashes. It was confirmed that cross-wind, in relation to vehicle speed and slippery road conditions, needs more attention. The importance of goods load-ing and passengers’ position in the bus, was indicated by the fact that a displacement of the cen-tre of mass rearwards with 10% increased the necessary coefficient of friction with, on average 45%, which in many cases corresponded to dry road conditions. Three Swedish rollover crashes were analysed with regard to the injury outcome, mechanisms and the possible injury reduction for occupants using a safety belt. A considerable increase in safety for occupants belted with 3-point belts was shown through limiting interior contacts, occupant interaction and the possibility of ejection. Crucial post-crash factors in the emergency- and rescue response showed that ordi-nary ways of working and equipment are not always useful and proper equipment for lifting a coach body is essential in the case of a rollover. Finally, the communication between the hospitals is important, and the telephone systems may be overloaded by calls from worried relatives and media. Conclusions: In non-crash events: Non-crash events constitute a majority of all bus and coach casualties with a high proportion of elderly female occupants among the MAIS 2+ injury cases. Boarding and, especially alighting causes many injuries to the lower extremities. In the pre-crash phase: Cross-winds do affect the safety of buses and coaches and requires more at-tention. Seat belt usage among bus and coach occupants has to be increased. In the crash phase: Rollover and ejection are the major causes behind serious and fatal injuries to bus and coach occupants, consequently, retentive glazing, pillars or rails need more attention. An upgrade from 2-point seat belts to 3-point seat belts yields an increase in the estimated injury re-duction from approximately 50% up to 80% for the MAIS 2+ casualties in a rollover crash. In the post-crash phase: In order to be able to lift a coach body proper equipment originated from experience and development is essential in a rescue operation of a crashed bus or coach. Fur-thermore, to improve the emergency response inside crashed coaches proper methods originated from experience need to be developed. Euro NBAP: Based on the results and conclusions generated in this thesis, a European New Bus and Coach Assessment Programme is suggested, which would provide bus and coach occupants with a assessment programme similar to the Euro NCAP.

The thesis is focused on radiological and chemical weapons in the context of their use in terrorist attacks against the civilian population in relation to rescue and clean up operations of the Integrated Rescue System (IRS) of the Czech Republic. The objective of the thesis is to specify the terms of radiological and chemical weapons, to assess potential negative consequences of their use with the emphasis on the threat to life and health of the population, to evaluate the economic impact on society and to compare the IRS activities during the immediate intervention carried out after a terrorist attack. The topic is dealt with based on the research and the analysis of rules of law in force regulating activities of the IRS components in these major incidents and also of documents of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and other works focused on the misuse of radioactive and chemical agents in terrorist attacks. Severity and complexity of the issue is illustrated by information given on the radiological accident in Goiana in Brazil, sarin attacks of the Japanese sect Óm šinrikjó and consequences of the model example of the use of radionuclide 137Cs. In the thesis the current methodology on which the IRS components operate in such emergencies is analyzed, and some aspects that are subject of the set of type activities, worked out by the Civil Emergency Planning Committee and DG Fire Rescue Service of the CR, which may become weak points during a real action of the IRS, are pointed out. One of major issues analyzed in this study is comparison of radiological and chemical attacks with the focus on the initial phase of the intervention of the IRS components. Presentation of differences in individual activities of the IRS components in such interventions can contribute significantly to understanding and subsequently managing the activities carried out by the IRS components in these major incidents.