Following the coach crash near Heathrow Airport at 23:45hrs on Wednesday 3^rd January staff on duty in Accident and Emergency (A&E) that night have reflected on their experiences.

Dr Heather Clark, A&E Consultant at St. Peter’s Hospital said:  “We received four patients - two had severe injuries and other two were not so severe.   We were well prepared for this having received injuries of similar types because of our proximity to the M25, the busiest stretch of motorway in the UK.   We have seen terrorism and train crashes recently but this was an appalling coach crash and some of the injuries were consistent with people not having their seatbelts fastened.   I would urge anyone travelling in moving vehicle – car, mini-bus or coach – to ensure that their seatbelt is fastened at all times.   Seatbelts save lives!

“All hospitals nearby to an incident are alerted and we were ideally placed to take the some of the injured.  The ambulance service ensure that the patients are taken to a number of hospitals so that no one hospital is overloaded. In this case St. Peter’s was one of six hospitals involved.  As soon as patients start to arrive our well practiced A&E procedures were put into effect to ensure that the patients were given the best treatment possible.”

The type of injuries sustained by the patients included fractured clavicles, ribs and pelvic bones; dislocated shoulder and hip; lacerations and serious bruising.

A&E Sister Sarah Moth commented: “Our practice at Major Incidents all paid off and although we were stood down quite early on we were able to test our Major Incident response for real.   Additional staff had arrived as we received patients and we worked well with the three ambulance services – Berkshire, London and South East Coast.   Had we received more patients I am confident that we would have been able to cope and provide the best possible care for these and other patients.”

The two patients remaining at St. Peter’s hospital are both now in a stable condition on the Surgical High Dependency Unit (HDU):

·          a 76 year old female from Scotland – time of arrival 02:03hrs on 4^th January

·          a 40 year old male from Poland – time of arrival 02:15hrs on 4^th January

Two patients were discharged or transferred from the hospital on the afternoon of Thursday 4^th  January:

·          a 73 year old male from Scotland – time of arrival 02:25hrs on 4^th January

·          a 83 year old female from Scotland – time of arrival 02:05hrs on 4^th January