Delphi study into planning for care of children in major incidents

Abstract

This paper describes a Delphi study used to identify and improve areas of concern in the planning of care for children in major incidents. The Delphi was conducted over three rounds and used a multidisciplinary panel of 22 experts. Experts were selected to include major incident, immediate care, emergency medicine, and paediatric specialists. This paper presents a series of consensus statements that represent the Delphi group's opinion on the management of children in major incidents. The statements cover all phases of major incident planning and response. Paediatric services may play a vital role in the preparation and response to a major incident involving children. This paper represents a consensus view on how best to plan and respond to major incidents involving children. An accompanying paper describes the practical implementation of this guidance.