Emergency procedures

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PROCEDURE
The duty officer system is available 24 hrs per day, 365 days of the year
You must let us know as soon as is safely possible to do so if you have an emergency situation

DUTY OFFICER:

  1. Laura Keene +44 7739 542 353
  2. Peter Churchill +44 7879 471 837
  3. Richard Keene +44 7918 732 579

Emergency Procedures
The sequence of actions depends upon the nature of the emergency.

Immediate Action
• Ensure your own safety.
• REMAIN CALM – Assess the situation.
• If possible, delegate actions to other leaders and participants so you can keep an overview, and to allow concurrent activity.
• Ensure the safety of the group. Make sure everyone is accounted for and adequately supervised.
• Call relevant emergency services if necessary
• Carry out first aid to the best of your abilities.

First Aid
The aims of first aid are to

  1. Preserve life:
    a. Casualties need to be able to breath – if they are unconscious put them into a safe airway position.
    b. Try to find and stop any serious external bleeding.
  2. Prevent the condition worsening:
    a. Protect the casualty from the environment – keep them warm and dry.
    b. Monitor their condition.
  3. Promote recovery:
    a. Talk to them, reassure them, hold their hand, provide emotional support.

Urgent Action
Take stock and plan, delegating where possible.
Call your establishment’s Emergency Contact if any of the following apply:

You need support – we can do this for you if you call us;
The emergency services are involved
The incident is serious
The press/media are involved

They could need the following information:
Who you are, which establishment you are from and what your role is within the group
The number you can be called back on
The nature of the emergency and details of the incident
What help you need
Whether the emergency services are involved
How many casualties there are and their status
The number of people in your party
Your location, and whether you plan to move.
Liaise with, and take advice from, the emergency services if they are involved.
Address the urgent needs of the group:
Ensure adequate supervision
Ensure they understand what to do to remain safe
Physical needs, e.g. shelter, food and drink, transport
Emotional needs, e.g. remove them from the scene, provide reassurance and emotional support (they can often do this for each other), give them useful things to do, protect them from intrusion.
Control communications – prevent group members from using phones or social media unsupervised or until approval is given.

Start a written log of actions taken and conversations held, with times.

Further Actions and Follow-Up
Take stock again and re-plan the next phase – what have you forgotten?
Deal with any casualties who are in the care of the emergency services:
Accompany them to hospital;
Keep track of who is where.
Consider the needs of yourself and fellow leaders – are you/they coping?
Liaise with your establishment or employer – hand over what you can to them, to reduce the stress on you.
Continue the written log with all details of the incident of the actions taken, including names and contact details of any witnesses.

Address the further needs of the group, for example:
Toilets, washing facilities, clean/dry clothes;
Transport;
Accommodation;
Contact with home.
Refer all media, parental or other enquiries to your establishment or employer.

Contact relevant agencies as necessary (via your establishment/employer if possible), for example: – Again, we can do the following on your behalf:
Tour operator/travel company/activity provider/accommodation provider
Travel insurance emergency assistance
Social services
Consular Assistance Team (if overseas).

In any of the following emergency situations you should immediately do the following:
• Contact local emergency services in resort/destination
• Contact your local ground handler in destination
• Contact Silverblue Tours duty officer

We will log & document all and any incidents of which we are made aware and assist you with including follow up and review of our own processes to ensure all is resolved or dealt with in a satisfactory manner