Fire service enhances triage capability as part of major incident response

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service has invested in new equipment to improve the way it triages and cares for injured people at major incidents.

All the service’s fire engines will soon carry ten second triage kits which allow fire crews to identify what category of care an injured patient needs within ten seconds and put a colour coded wristband on that quickly identifies to paramedics which patients need urgent care.

The service was motivated to invest in this approach as a result of the learning from the response to the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017. The NHS set a deadline of 30 June 2024 for all emergency services to use the NHS Ten Second Triage Tool to provide care for casualties prior to the arrival of the NHS clinical response.

All frontline responders in Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service will be trained to use the new kit by September.

In addition to the ten second triage tool, the service has also invested in Xtract Stretchers to allow fire crews to move people quickly away from areas of risk.

To find our more about the ten second triage approach read, Time is ticking until the Ten Second Triage deadline.

---

To read similar articles, check out our Frontline channel.