Casualty—a cause for concern

The history and development of trauma and emergency care in England

“…The undesirability of middle grade casualty posts contributed to the problem of ‘poor recruitment’. 8 Even by the 1970s, A&E departments’ running was left to junior doctors fulfilling mandatory drafting as part of their Royal College of Surgeons Fellowship 16 and migrant doctors. 13 However, this opinion was not shared by all.…”

“…A national conference organised primarily by senior registrars committed to a career in accident and orthopaedic surgery assessed what those within the specialty thought of controlling emergency services as a whole. 16 The senior casualty officer was a post created organically in selected departments in the 1950s and 1960s who surmised more senior clinical direction was needed on a day to day basis – the first post was created by the Newcastle Regional Hospital Board on the direction of Dr Patterson in 1953. 17 In 1963, 12 casualty surgeons created a memorandum highlighting the Platt report’s overemphasis on the impact of trauma on daily workload in A&E departments and failure to acknowledge senior casualty officers who had an interest in emergency medicine.…”