Swedish emergency hospitals' readiness for disaster; incidence, interest and training.

Disasters in Sweden are normally caused by human factors and these are dependent on the development of the community. The readiness of Swedish emergency hospitals to cope with disaster was investigated both in relation to real disasters and training with hospital disaster plans. An inquiry to the chief physician at every emergency hospital in Sweden, aiming to map the incidence of disasters and the availability of relevant further education, showed a low use of disaster plans in practice and little training in the use of them. It is necessary for several departments to take more responsibility for the disaster plans at emergency hospitals, through regular updating of disaster plans and training. This would minimise the number of people with injuries of both somatic and psychiatric origin in real disaster situations. It would be possible to maintain the readiness of Swedish hospitals to cope with disaster by developing a disaster medicine discipline and introducing selected teams of specialised staff at the emergency hospitals. These efforts together would maintain readiness to cope with disaster and stimulate interest in research, education and further education in the field of disaster medicine.