Provision of trauma teams in Scotland: a national survey

Trauma is still the leading cause of mortality in the first four decades of life. Despite numerous reports on how trauma care could be improved in the UK, treatment has been shown to be inconsistent and of poor quality. Trauma teams have been shown to have a positive effect on outcome. A study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of trauma teams in Scotland.

A telephone survey was performed of 24 hospitals with emergency departments in which the senior clinician was interviewed regarding the provision of trauma teams.

Five (21%) of the hospitals questioned had trauma teams. The most common reasons for not having one were no problem with the current system in eight cases (44%) and an inability to include sufficiently senior staff on the team in six cases (24%).

There are few trauma teams in Scottish acute hospitals. There was little enthusiasm for introducing them for a variety of reasons. Local evidence of benefit is probably needed before their adoption becomes widespread.