The casualty profile from the Manchester bombing 1996: a proposal for the construction and dissemination of casualty profiles from major incidents.

OBJECTIVE To produce a casualty profile for the Manchester bombing and to illustrate the potential uses of such templates in major incident planning. METHODS A retrospective review of casualty notes from the Manchester bombing. RESULTS A complete anonymous casualty profile for the Manchester bombing is given with AIS90 coded injuries. The majority (129, 62%) of casualties sustained minor injuries from flying glass. A significant number of casualties (36, 18%) presented with emotional distress or medical problems. A wide age range of casualties was involved. Few patients (19, 9%) required admission to hospital. There were no deaths and no casualties sustained major trauma. CONCLUSIONS Casualty profiles may be useful in the planning and testing of health service major incident plans. Such information should be easily accessible to all emergency planners.