Grootschalige Geneeskundige Bijstand
The Grootschalige Geneeskundige Bijstand (GGB) is an organizational model used by medical emergency services in The Netherlands in case of incidents involving many casualties.
In use since January 2016, the GGB model is designed to ensure adequate care of up to about 250 casualties and focuses on letting the different services do what they do best:
- Ambulance personnel takes care of critically injured persons (designated T1 and T2), with the core objective of stabilizing them to get them transported to a trauma center (hospital) as quickly as possible.
- Specialized Noodhulp Teams from the Dutch Red Cross take care of lightly injured people (designation T3) to relieve the pressure on ambulance personnel.
In its entirety, the following services are involved with the GGB model:
- Geneeskundige Hulpverleningsorganisatie in de Regio (GHOR)
- Regionale Ambulancevoorzieningen (RAV), incl. Meldkamer Ambulancezorg (MKA’s)
- Traumacentra met Mobiele Medische Teams (MMT’s)
- Nederlandse Rode Kruis (RK)
- Instituut Fysieke Veiligheid.
Classifications
Based on the number of estimated injuries, different GGB codes will be used and emergency response will be scaled up accordingly: