The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD), within a matter of weeks of producing one report of interest to readers of this journal, has published another one that many readers will find both topical and fascinating (www.ncepod.org.uk).

The report—Trauma: who cares?—is worth a look. It runs to 151 pages, is well written, lucid and has a good mix of people on its separate expert and advisory panels, including representatives from our own fields. The NCEPOD website also has comment from several groups including the Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) and Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS).

The report examines the process of care for severely injured patients and identifies variations that affect the achievement of agreed end points, in particular the timeliness of clinical management, issues with prehospital care, initial resuscitation, secondary transfers, pathways, handovers and communication.

Patients were identified prospectively, the emergency department (ED) identifying the patients using …