Although the case for better trauma care in the UK has been well described over the past decade and there have been a number of high-profile interventions such as the Advanced Trauma Life Support course, the Major Trauma Outcome Study, the Trauma Centre experiment in Staffordshire and the development of a British paramedic service, there has been relatively little published on the lower profile but often effective local responses to injuries in the UK. In this article, we describe the evolution of the Trauma Forum, a multidisciplinary monthly meeting at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, which was established in 1993 and has been widely acknowledged as a pivotal factor in the improvement of the hospital's overall response to the victims of injuries. The audience has exceeded 1000 over 24 months, with an average consultant attendance of over 20 per meeting, and the number of disciplies involved has increased steadily until the present time. This is in contrast to many other similar institutions throughout the UK where trauma audits have failed due to apathy. We describe the gradual development and restructuring of the meeting in response to audience surveys and the current educational climate and examine our successes and failures and the many difficulties encountered in sustaining widespread interest in trauma audits.