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Warming devices for patients should be available for use in the anaesthetic room, operating theatre, recovery unit and ED.¹⁹

Facilities to allow access to online information, such as electronic patient records, local guidelines and clinical decision aids, in the theatre suite should be considered.

Elective orthopaedic and planned trauma cases should have their temperature checked preoperatively on the ward.¹⁹ Active warming devices should be available for patients prior to coming to theatre.

A rapid infuser allowing the infusion of warmed intravenous fluids and blood products should be available.²⁰

Equipment for portable monitoring and ventilation should be available in the resuscitation room.^21,22

Equipment to facilitate haemodynamic and cardiac output monitoring should be available.

A ‘difficult airway trolley’ should be immediately available in all areas where major trauma patients are received. These should be equipped as defined in the Difficult Airway Society (DAS) guidelines, and include video laryngoscopes, fibreoptic scopes, jet ventilation and surgical airway equipment.^11,23,24

In MTCs and TUs, the resuscitation room receiving bays should be large enough to allow simultaneous emergency procedures to be performed by trauma team members.³⁴

Hospitals that receive patients with major trauma should ideally have an emergency operating theatre and a radiology intervention suite situated sufficiently close to the ED to allow rapid transfer of trauma patients.

An emergency operating theatre should be rapidly available at all times for major trauma patients. The available equipment should be suitable for a full range of emergency trauma procedures. Use of this theatre for non-urgent cases should be tightly controlled. If the designated emergency theatre is occupied, there should be a robust, flexible and agreed backup plan to obtain an...