The NHS must plan for the devastating long term effects on staff dealing with mass casualty terror attacks, such as the Manchester suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande gig which killed 22 innocent concert-goers, warns a new report.
Experts claim the physical and psychological complications of such atrocities on medical staff who have to deal with the repercussions of the horrific events are ‘severe, under-reported, and underappreciated’.
They stressed the NHS in England has faced an ‘unprecedented’ amount of major incidents this year, including the deaths of eight people in June’s London Bridge terror attack when a van deliberately mounted the pavement.
Professor Chris Moran, NHS England’s national clinical director for trauma, also pointed to the Westminster attack in March, when six lives were claimed as a car driven by an Islamic terrorist went into a group of pedestrians.
Writing in the BMJ, he said all have tested the country’s major trauma system. His comments come as the chief of MI5 warned that fresh attacks to the country are inevitable as the UK faces its most severe ever terrorist threat.
