Pain response triage — DipIMC MCQ

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EasyMajor IncidentsPain response triageDipIMC

At a concert crush, a casualty is lying supine, not walking, breathing at 20/min, and responds only to pain. No catastrophic bleeding is present. What is the triage category?

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Correct answer: A — Priority 1 (red)

A response worse than voice is a P1 feature in MITT. Normal respiratory rate does not offset depressed consciousness in major incident triage. The patient is breathing, so dead triage is inappropriate. The pearl is that reduced consciousness may reflect hypoxia, head injury or shock and should be treated as immediate risk.

Reference: NHS England MITT 2023; JRCALC Guidelines 2025