Effects of Terrorism on the Healthcare Community

Planning for medical response to terrorist incidents focuses almost exclusively on the early hours after the event. Once scenes have been cleared and all patients dispatched from the emergency department, the major incident is stood down. However, it may be many hours before the last patient leaves the operating room and critical care areas are only just beginning to absorb the impact of the event.¹ Further surgery will be required the next day and for several days to come. For many staff members these victims will dominate their workload for weeks or months. A terrorist incident will therefore affect the functioning of a hospital for a considerable period after the event. The hospital’s response must go beyond the care of the patient to include handling of the media, police and public.