Victorian Mass Casualty Burns Plan
The Victoria mass casualty burns plan (Burns Plan) has been developed as a specialist health sub plan of the State Health Emergency Response Plan
Specialist burn units are a scarce resource. A statewide burns plan must therefore articulate how other local resources will be most effectively utilised, following a mass casualty incident. This will require hospitals without burn units managing, for a time, patients with severe burn injuries. Such a plan must also establish protocols for escalating the response, by harnessing appropriate assistance from interstate (specialist staff and transfer of patients to specialist units).
Pre-hospital care is also of vital importance. Mass casualty burns patients need to be resuscitated, triaged and transferred to the most appropriate hospital, according to the Trauma Triage Guidelines (TTG).1 This requires effective communication and coordination between the Health Commander/Field Emergency Medical Officer (FEMO), the Field Emergency Medical Coordinator (FEMC), the Department of Human Services and all Hospital Incident Controllers (however titled).
