Disaster medicine in Germany. The DGU disaster medicine network

The worldwide increase in the number of natural disasters and the exacerbation of the situation with terrorist threats have meant that disaster relief has become increasingly important, in Germany as elsewhere. Since 9/11, various national warning institutes have been started up, while mass casualty incident treatment still has to be organized by the individual states. In the event of a disaster, hospitals will have a crucial function. Specific analyses have shown that mass medical emergency plans exist but the degree to which they can be implemented needs improvement. Based on the DGU trauma network, a national "disaster network" is planned in collaboration with the federal agency for civil defense and disaster relief (Bundesamt fur Bevolkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe, BBK), which should allocate treatment capacities of the member hospitals and ease their preparations for a major disasters.