Sheffield hospital bosses prepare plan for potential terrorist attack in city

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is to establish a committee ‘to address the planning response required in the event of a marauding terrorist attack’.

Hospital staff are to receive expanded training on ‘blast and ballistic trauma’ injuries in preparation for the possibility of bomb or gun attacks.

NHS England asked all hospital trusts across the country to provide a ‘statement of readiness’ following the terror attacks in Paris.

Details are to be discussed at the trust’s monthly board meeting on Wednesday.

A report by Carole Mistry, emergency planning manager, said previous work means the trust ‘can demonstrate readiness in all areas requested’, but it is hoped ‘this can be further developed to increase the organisation’s resilience’.

It is intended the trust will have a plan in place by the end of May to deal with a ‘marauding terrorist attack’.

Senior hospital managers will be involved in drawing up the plans.

The report said: “The Trust is to establish a strategic Task and Finish Group in January 2016 to address the planning response required in the event of marauding terrorist attack.

“The group will be chaired by the Chief Operating Officer and membership will include clinical representation from Surgical Services, Burns and Plastics, Orthopaedics, Radiology, Theatres, Microbiology and Emergency Planning.”

Kirsten Major, director of strategy and operations at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “As one of the country’s largest hospital trusts and also a major trauma centre for the region, we routinely plan and prepare for the occurrence of any major incident.

“To do this, we work with our partners across all emergency services to ensure that in the event of a potential incident, we are prepared and able to care for people requiring emergency hospital treatment.”

The plan follows South Yorkshire Police announcing before Christmas they would be putting more armed officers on the streets to ‘provide reassurance to the public’.

The force said it was designed to ‘work as a deterrent’ with the UK terrorism threat remaining at ‘severe’.