Incident Protocol
Major Incident Reporting Protocol
In the event of an incident occurring at a venue
officially patrolled by a Lifesaving South Africa
voluntary duty member or duty squad or in a remote
vicinity but attended to by members of the club/
duty squad while on duty the following reporting /
investigative procedure must be adhered to.
Examples of reportable incidents are as follows but
are not limited to
- Confirmed death by drowning or unknown causes
or a near drowning of a member of the bathing
public within the lifeguard patrolled area.
- Suspected drowning / disappearance of a member
of the bathing public within patrolled area.
- Retrieval of bodies from the water.
- Injury to a member of the bathing public
within patrolled area caused by the actions of a
voluntary duty lifeguard in which case claims of
medical and/or legal liability may be tested.
- Injury to a voluntary duty lifeguard caused
during or subsequent to the execution of his or
her lifesaving duty either by accident, force of
nature or violent act in which case claims of
medical and/or legal liability may be tested.
- Any resuscitation carried out by the club or
its members, wherever it may occur, resulting
from a call out made to the club
Resuscitation
In Lifesaving South Africa we begin to teach the
aspects of the safe use of the sea to our Nipper
members from 8 years of age. On reaching the age of
14, these young people move into the Junior ranks of
the Association where amongst the topics studied for
their Junior Lifeguard Award, they take the first
steps of learning about Lifesaving and
Resuscitation. They learn how to recognise symptoms
of bather distress, how to safely secure the patient
to rapidly remove them from the water to dry land,
and how to check for vital signs and where necessary
perform basic CPR. This basic knowledge is added to
when the Junior Lifeguard goes on to take the full
Lifeguard award from the age of 16. Other awards are
available both within and outside the movement to
further add to this basic knowledge.
Helicopter Rescue
In March 2005 the Nokia helicopter sponsorship
contract ended. Nokia Finland had taken over the
marketing and distribution of their phones and had
different ideas to the local distributor with
regards to marketing. Nokia Finland chose to focus
on music and fashion.
We approached a number of corporate to take over
the sponsorship and had much interest but only
Netcare911 gave serious commitment, although their
budget alone was not sufficient. Together, the CEO
of the NSRI, Ian Weinberg, and Dr Ryan Noach, CEO of
Netcare911, managed to convince Vodacom to make up
the deficit and thus the Vodacom Netcare911 Surf
Rescue service, a three year sponsorship, was born.
However the contract is between Vodacom, Netcare911
and the NSRI.
The VNSR service took to the skies in Dec 2005. The
helicopter is dispatched through the Netcare 911
flight desk, activated by the public through the
082911 telephone number. The Netcare911 control room
provides state of the art technology with satellite
tracking of all helicopters and ambulances as well
as the ability to locate the GPS coordinates of
callers to speed up rescue crew’s response. In
addition, Netcare911 has negotiated much faster and
more powerful B2 Squirrel helicopters for Durban and
Cape Town over the December period from Helimax.
This has raised the Surf Rescue service to a higher
level of efficiency.
In Cape Town, George, PE, and Margate, the crew
consists of a LSA rescue swimmer, an NSRI crewman,
and a Netcare911 medic. In Durban LSA assists the
NSRI in staffing the crewman position as the NSRI
have fewer crew in KZN. Each region is managed by a
regional co-ordinating committee made up of a
representative from each organization. These RCC’s
then report to a NCC with the same representation.
This transition was easiest in Cape Town as the crew
there have an established working relationship with
experienced NSRI helicopter crew. In all other
regions the transition has been difficult but
successful. LSA has assisted the NSRI in KZN to
train their crew in helicopter operations with the
NSRI providing monthly training for LSA and Netcare
staff in swift water and sea rescue techniques. A
consequence of the transition is that the LSA heli
crew stalwarts in Durban have retired. However there
is still plenty interest from new crew members.
One of the problem areas at present is that the
NSRI and LSA have different helicopter operations
manuals with different crew requirements. An NCC sub
committee has been tasked to sit in August 2006 to
produce a combined manual with one set of standards.
Thereafter the subcommittee will roll out the new
manual in November 2006 in each region ensuring that
crew are trained to the same standards in all
regions prior to the summer season.
Contacts:
For any queries in your area, please contact your
local representative.
They are as follows:
Durban - James Ross - 082 465 8280
Margate - Steve Shomela - 076 619 2324
PE
- Mark Ackerman - 082 809 0772
George - Richard Botha
- 083 585 3339
Cape Town - Johan Van Zyl - 083 556 2663 |
