Many of us have read over the past week or so, the results from the inquest about the tragic swimming pool death of young Jane Bell, from Galashiels in the Scottish Borders, who died after getting into difficulty at the Dalmeny Hotel pool in St Annes, Lancashire on 14 August 2014.
A tragedy in it’s own right, but a greater tragedy simply because it could have been prevented.
The inquest heard that “there was no trained lifeguard on duty at the time” Even though the alarm was raised – it appears that no-one could do anything to help in time.
Coroner, Mr Wilson told the hearing at Blackpool Town Hall there may have been a lack of focus on the welfare of people using the pool at the time and he questioned whether financial reasons were behind the lack of trained lifeguards.
In my experience the majority of hotels, spas and health clubs do operate with trained Lifeguards. However, the designated Lifeguards or Responders whilst on duty are more often than not tasked with many other duties to perform as part of their normal job description.
The RLSS provide a number of options and levels of qualifications for staff positioned within the leisure industry in situations such as this and described fully on their website www.rlss.org.uk - these are vital qualifications to have to help ensure the safety of your swimmers.
At Poolview Ltd we offer a range of technological safer swimming systems for every operational type, shape and size of pool. The one single thing that we rely on to make ALL of our systems functional is a fully qualified and trained lifeguard or 1st Responder. Someone has to make the rescue!
All the alarms and alerts in the world can be “ringing aloud” – but if you don’t have a staff member who can get into the pool and effect a rescue – all systems fail!
Our technological solutions for non-lifeguarded swimming pools include Sentag, SwimEye™ and Bluefox. Each has its own merits, individual characteristics and methods by which an alarm is activated. But most importantly, each will alert the designated lifeguard or responder (who is perhaps working in the gym, reception or even cleaning), to the fact that someone in their swimming pool is in difficulty and needs immediate assistance.
For further information or an informal discussion, please do not hesitate to contact me directly on 077 6874 6789robinmcgloughlin@poolview.co.uk. We are here to help.
