Martyn’s Law (also known as the Protect Duty) is intended to improve public safety and security at publicly accessible locations in response to terrorism risks.

For event medical service providers, the introduction of Martyn’s Law brings specific responsibilities and considerations that must be coordinated with the event safety planning conducted by the venue and event organiser.

Organisations and individuals contracted to provide medical cover at an event will not normally be Category 1 responders and their role in the response to an incident may be to make an initial assessment of the incident and institute such triage and immediate life-saving interventions as their resources on site will allow, pending arrival of the statutory emergency services. Thereafter, they will operate under the command of the NHS Ambulance Commander.

The event medical plan for an event regulated by Martyn’s Law would likely include:

  1. Roles and Responsibilities: clearly defined expectations of the event medical service provider
  2. Risk Assessment: the event medical service provider should be involved in and aware of the events risk and threat assessment
  3. Access and Egress: planning for emergency access routes
  4. Details of Major Incident training: ensuring that medical teams have a working knowledge of METHANE, MIMS, JESIP principles, and mass casualty triage.
  5. Equipment and Capability: that there is appropriate equipment available to respond in the initial stages of a major incident

The resources present on site in terms of crew and equipment will determine what can reasonably be expected of the event medical service in an emergency situation.

Further clarification and guidance is expected and in the meantime members are advised to exercise caution when considering investment in specific training on the new legislation.