We undertook active surveillance to improve
the timeliness of returns, and all eligible
participating agencies consistently reported
incidents or “nil returns” on a monthly basis.
However, the representativeness of the system
and the quality of the health outcome data
could be improved further. The results in
Gwent, where 52 incidents were reported only
by the Fire Service suggests that the sensitivity
of the surveillance system would have been
improved by the participation of all fire
services, as well as of other agencies in Wales.
Press cuttings were shown to be a useful source
of data that uniquely identified 54 incidents