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AI-DRAFTED — PHYSICIAN REVIEW IN PROGRESSThe citation for this entry was checked against Crossref and PubMed, but its summary and interpretation were drafted by an AI model from the published abstract and have not yet been individually read by a physician. Read the linked source before relying on this operationally.
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European perspectives on pre-hospital interagency collaboration during terrorist incidents: a focus group study[1]

Raub D, Bentele M, Robinson Y · 2025 · Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med

Summary

Focus-group study (CRIMEDIM disaster-medicine group; 12 groups, 64 participants from 20 European countries — prehospital providers, emergency physicians, and law-enforcement including special forces) of interagency collaboration during terrorist/violent incidents. 49% denied feeling adequately trained to collaborate in a tactical scenario; joint training opportunities were rare, breeding misconceptions of counterparts' capabilities. 64% reported POLICE as the primary hot-zone casualty-care provider, with protocols often extending this into the warm zone — yet interviews indicated police are unlikely to deliver that care without significant delay, making CASUALTY EVACUATION the key bottleneck and the prolonged "therapeutic vacuum" inside high-risk zones the core systemic vulnerability.

So what

The organizational counterpart to the Barcelona clinical entry, and it names the failure mode event counter-terror plans most often paper over: the assumption that whoever is assigned hot/warm-zone care (usually police) will actually deliver it in time. The therapeutic-vacuum / casualty-evacuation-bottleneck framing is directly transferable to venue medical planning — an event's deliberate-attack annex must specify who bleeds control in the hot zone and how bodies move out, not just who owns the cold zone. Reinforces the interagency-training thesis (SAG, JESIP) with multinational data; free PMC full text.

Key findings

  • 64 participants, 20 European countries; prehospital + law enforcement + special forces
  • 49% feel inadequately trained for tactical interagency collaboration
  • 64% report police as primary hot-zone care - but delivery is often delayed
  • Casualty evacuation = the key bottleneck; the therapeutic vacuum the core vulnerability
  • Calls for joint training on behavioural competencies, not rigid protocol; free PMC

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