Introduction

The responsibility for decontamination in a chemical incident was moved to the health service in 2004 by the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA).

It had previously been the responsibility of the fire service, but this now only applies if there are mass casualties involved.

Each acute health trust must have a major incident plan that is regularly updated.

The chemical incident plan should be adapted to individual hospital configuration, but along the lines of the guidance from the PHE and Department of Health [3].

The chemical incident plan is part of the major incident plan and many principles are the same, such as recognition that there will be a police investigation afterwards.