"Working in Water Needs A High Level of Technical Rescue Expertise...
That's Why (REMS) Rescue & Emergency Medical Services are our Preferred Traininers"
Phil Keeting, Senior Cicil Engineering Manager, nuttall (John Martin) Ltd.
Phil Keeting is responsible for providing maritime maintenance across Liverpool's Freeport for Peel
Ports (Mersey) plc. As fully-qualified Civil Engineer with fourteen years diving experience it's his job to
ensure that all maintenance works undertaken across the port are backed-up with the highest levels of health
& safety in mind and full, immediate access to emergency medical & rescue support in the event that an
accident occurs.
As Phil explains: "Due to the location of our current works on the Dock estate on Liverpool's waterside it has become necessary to make our own arrangements for medical emergencies. Due to our remoteness we are cut off from the mainland and vehicular access to the docks for up to 2 hours each day, as swing bridges are opened to allow shipping traffic to pass through.
As an 8 minute response from the road ambulance would be impossible, our first port of call in an emergency is to contact Helimed 08 based at Blackpool. The HSE also tell us that when compiling our rescue plans dialing 999 is not suitable mitigation measure; as we have special circumstances, we recognise that we must make special arrangements. For stabilising casualties if the aircraft is unavailable (is at night or bad weather) 4 of the site team are trained to ILS standards, and we have de fib, O2, Entonox, and advanced airway all available. in addition to this i am also trained to ALS and PHTLS instructor standards. The nature of the operations we are carrying out also mean that specialist interventions may be required that the ambulance or fire services are not trained in, such as: Commercial diving, Confined space works, Working at height, Ultra high pressure water jetting ( we us it to cut steel and concrete !)
As a Hyper baric Medical Technician, and commercial diver working at my local re compression chamber, i'm well placed to deal with all of the above possible incidents. To keep up my patient contact time, I'm also a responder for the local ambulance service, and receive pager calls to all red calls within 4 miles of the Docks.
Working for a proactive employer, I'm able to provide a medical response service to the whole 900 acre Dock estate, on what can be a difficult place to locate a casualty without local knowledge of the estate.
As the 18m deep gate we are refurbishing at the moment is classed as a confined space, it means our staff have undertake special training to enter the spaces. We use Dave and his staff at REMS to provide this specialist training for us. They provide an excellent service, and come to site to carryout the training and assessments.
We use REMS because they fully understand the problems that we encounter, and they provide a bespoke course for each individual circumstance.
We intend to use REMS again for the advanced CS3 course for confined spaces. I'd recommend REMS (Rescue & Emergency Medical Services) to any company."
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Just a note to thank your organisation for your commitment and contribution
to our safety day.
I think it was pitched just right feedback from staff and contractors has so far been positive. The challenge we have now is to continue
the safety performance and ensure we continue to work together and deliver a
safe outage.
Richard Pennels, Plant Manager E,ON UK Ironbridge Power Station
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I was very please to have REMS on-sight during the outage as a supervisor it was reassuring
to know that if there was a serious incident these individuals could administer medical aid
As you know we have to enter a lot of confirmed spaces to carry out our inspections and
it was reassuring to know that our inspectors could be rescued under emergency
conditions. The training on-sight for Confined Spaces was an excellent resource as it
minimised downtime and organization of the course thus making us all more effective.
I also believe that holding the courses onsite sends a stronger message as attendees can
relate to the issues. I think the services deserves 10 out of 10.
Nigel Rees, Inspection management E,ON Engineering Connahs Quay Power Station.
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Dear All,
In light of the imminent return to service of GTB and following a risk assessment it has been determined that REMS emergency outage support is no longer required. The site team have been stood down as of today and all their vehicles and equipment have left site. The site has now reverted back to the emergency preparedness and response procedure.
I would like to thank the entire team from Rescue and Emergency Medical Services (REMS) for their hard work and efforts in supporting the B2 outage on behalf of the Principle Contractor – Rocksavage Power Company Ltd. They have dealt with nearly 100 incidents since their initial mobilisation as well as providing confined space training and dealing with the threat of swine flu. I’m sure that without their prompt medical intervention a number of the more serious cases would have required hospital treatment off site resulting in timely delays, and possibly LTI’s.
Regards,
Martyn Gilbert (Principle Contractor, Outage HSE Manager)”
