Health workers not prepared for mass casualties

44 per cent of nurses think the healthcare system is not prepared for Rugby World Cup 2011. Photo / Paul Estcourt

More than half the country's emergency medical staff feel under-prepared for a mass casualty event and more than 40 per cent of doctors and nurses believe the country is not prepared for the Rugby World Cup, a study has shown.

Sultan Alshaqsi, a student at the Otago University School of Medicine, is carrying out the study as part of his PhD. It involves interviewing 1500 doctors, nurses and paramedics in a 25-question survey.

He said his preliminary findings, based on half of the total responses, had shown serious deficiencies in how prepared healthcare professionals are for a major event.

Mr Alshaqsi said it was a worry that many staff admitted they did not know where to find their facility's emergency plan, which was one measure of how staff could handle a crisis.

"Fifty-eight per cent really have no clue what they would do in the case of an emergency which is quite a serious matter.

"It is a bit of a surprise ... you expect hospitals and doctors to know what they should be doing if there is a mass casualty but in fact many don't, which is quite interesting because the public always regard hospitals as a safe haven.

"If there is a mass casualty in New Zealand, 80 per cent of victims will not be able to have surgeries within at least six hours because our healthcare system is already overstretched. That's not good because from the World Health Organisation guidelines, victims have to have surgeries within two hours otherwise the survival rates go down."

A mass casualty is defined as an event in which there are multiple victims and is dependent on the ratio of victims to resources.

"Two or three crises at the same time, that would be a mass casualty ... and the other thing, it's not just crises, it could be just normal heart attacks, or swine flu or other things.

"There are encouraging issues - like 64 per cent of doctors said they were willing to be called into work if there is a mass casualty, which is quite interesting because [in] Australia and the UK, only 40 per cent are willing to work.

"In New Zealand we are much better, but we still have a long way to go."

The survey will be completed by the end of next month with more detailed analysis done by the end of the year.

THE FINDINGS

58 per cent of doctors do not know where their hospital's emergency plan is.

41 per cent of doctors think New Zealand's healthcare system is not prepared for Rugby World Cup 2011.

44 per cent of nurses think the healthcare system is not prepared for Rugby World Cup 2011.