Local emergency medical response after a terrorist attack in Norway: a qualitative study

Abstract

The determinants for success derived from this qualitative study (preparedness, management, networking, ability to improvise) may be universally applicable to understanding the conditions for resilient and safe healthcare services, and of general interest for quality improvement in healthcare.

Disaster Management: A State-of-the-Art Review

“…Some structure is necessary to create the ability to adapt the structure to the situation. Brandrud's [22] description of their successful system is excellent: "…[the] written preparedness and response plan was structured just enough to remind the health professional of their role and task, yet flexible enough to enable them to release their creativity to improvise solutions" (p. 811).…”

“…We cannot plan for every possibility, especially not every extreme and infrequent event covered in this textbook. Plans must be broad enough to allow adaptation as needed [22]. If plans are too narrowly focused the preparation may be ineffective.…”

“…Written plans do not obviate problems [33,38]. To be effective, training needs to be continuous, team-centred, and at least as far as disasters go, focused on the non-technical aspects of working in teams [22]. They have to use existing resources and include the possibility of the loss of these resources.…”

Psykiske sår etter 22. juli

“…Saerlig gjaldt det traumebehandlingen. Ringerike sykehus ble endog rost på lederplass i British Medical Journal, og Ullevål sykehus' innsats for de alvorligst skadede er blitt berømmet (1). Nå ser det ut til at også Oslo kommunale legevakt levde opp til kravene om akutt skadebehandling og videre henvisninger denne dagen.…”

Keep calm… and prepare

“…In contrast, Brandrud et al 4 adopted an original approach. The group used the conclusions of two official and independent commissions as starting point, namely that the medical response to the incident was particularly well managed.…”