Organisational recovery after a major incident: lessons from healthcare

On 7 July the Royal London Hospital's well-developed Major Incident Plan was put into effect, allowing the hospital to provide high quality trauma care to severely injured patients arriving at a peak rate of eighteen per hour while simultaneously coping with literally bus-loads of walking wounded coming into the hospital. In such situations, hospitals need to ensure that their emergency plans cover not only the immediate aftermath of the incident, but also the long-term care and treatment of patients. The correct management of resources, staff and hospital space can be as important to the success of the operation as the immediate treatment patients receive.