Only one in six A&Es in England say they could cope with major incident

Crowded accident and emergency wards mean only 15% of department heads are confident they could deal with a major incident such as a terror attack or rail disaster, new research has revealed.

In a survey of clinical directors and consultants at 71 emergency departments in England, all said their A&E was crowded, with more than 70% saying patients had to wait in corridors or ambulances at least half the time. Only 11 were confident they were “adequately prepared” to respond to a major incident.

The results, published last week in the Emergency Medicine Journal, came from a survey conducted in March last year by academics at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth and the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine in Birmingham.

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Source: Guardian, 11 January 2025