Carolyn Keane and Gail King highlight the issues of equipment for mobile medical teams in London

The current Department of Health NHS Guidance (1998) states that every acute hospital nominated by health authorities and ambulance services to respond to a major incident must provide a trained and equipped mobile medical team to attend the site, but at what cost and to what effect? Following an audit of ten London hospitals, it has emerged that there is an over accumulation of expensive equipment through- out London hospitals that is extremely costly and rarely used.