Medical support in hostile environments and situations

Proving high quality medical support in the pre-hospital setting has many challenges, but these are substantially amplified once the environment in which this care is to be delivered becomes hostile. An environment can be considered hostile when it: actively seeks to harm both the care provider and patient (e.g. direct – under fire - force, terrorist attacks, military/combat situations); has introduced additional risk factors for the patient (e.g. low temperatures, long distance from definitive care, limited medical resources on the scene); or has created a level of threat for which a high level of medical readiness is required (e.g. Protective Security Details, Executive Protection)

Each of the above-mentioned types of hostile environment requires a different set of skills, training and equipment to adequately respond and deliver high quality medical care and preparation.