In the event of a collective emergency situation, the FPS Public Health is responsible for organising medical and psychosocial assistance. In this context, one of its missions is to establish a list of all individuals involved. In order to carry out this task in the best possible way, a new tool, the Belgian Incident Tracking System (BITS) was launched on 28 April 2023.
The attacks of 22 March 2016 highlighted the difficulty of gathering data about the victims of a disaster. The process of identifying victims was both long and laborious. In 2016, information was still recorded on paper at the advance medical posts (at the disaster site), at hospitals, reception centres, etc. The absence of a suitable, standard registration system and a methodology for collecting, processing and disseminating the data relating to those involved, to relatives and missing individuals who needed to be found led to great suffering for the victims and their relatives. The recommendations of the parliamentary enquiry commission on the attacks accelerated the development of a global registration system for victims.
The BITS is used to identify the journey and location of deceased individuals, injured and non-injured persons, to know their state of health and be able to name them as quickly as possible. Using a bracelet, every person involved has a unique QR Code to which data can be attached. Data are collected in the medical posts, the centres for uninjured individuals and relatives and in the hospitals.
The BITS is also used to register requests from relatives to search for missing persons. During the Brussels attacks, 17,291 calls of this type were recorded. The BITS gives the paramedics in a call centre or a reception centre the opportunity to verify whether the missing person has been registered. If this person is not found, a detailed record of the search request can perhaps help to identify individuals whose identity is still unknown, such as deceased persons or those who are unconscious and injured.
The BITS application enables the authorities to generate lists ased on the registrations. These overviews are useful for coordinating medical and psychosocial assistance and informing the partners operating in the crisis centre. This information can also be sent to professionals who are involved in the post-acute phase.
The BITS has been used by the medical and psychosocial assistance services since 2022 in collective emergency situations and exercises.
From March 2022 to March 2024, 92 incidents were recorded in the BITS application involving a total of 4,297
individuals[1].
Number of incidents registered in BITS
Based on the initial triage, three quarters of the victims registered were uninjured. A fifth of them were assessed as slightly injured and 5% as injured and seriously injured.
Percentage of people involved by initial triage code (March 2022 - March 2024)
Fires, accidents and evacuations are the top 3 types of incident for which the BITS application was most used.
Type of incident (March 2022 - March 2024)
In the future, individuals involved in a collective emergency situation can register themselves via a citizen portal that can be activated by the FPS Public Health. This website is currently being developed. During a large-scale disaster it is not uncommon for many of those involved, who are uninjured or only slightly injured to return home on their own and then seek medical and/or psychosocial assistance. This self-registration will enable the authorities to find out about those people involved in the emergency situation and provide them with assistance and information and inform their relatives.
A second module, also being developed, will be specially designed for the hospitals. This connection between the data recorded in BITS and the hospitals will help to improve the exchange of data. This module will also allow the capacities and specialities available in the hospitals to be determined.
[1]Source: BPrepared, the statistics are established based on the registration database of the BITS application.