Water Safety

Technology for non-Lifeguarded Swimming Pools

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.

The "Effective Management of Lifeguards" - PfPL and Poolview

Over the past three weeks it has both been a privilege and pleasure to tour the country with the Safety Team from Places for People (Leisure). Delivering, industry and safety updates along with thought provoking presentations to over 350 senior leisure professionals proved to be informative, interesting and challenging.

Our contribution was entitled "Effective Management of Lifeguards - Challenging Preconceived Ideas" which was well received and certainly produced some enlightened discussion and debates around the use of both proactive and reactive safer swimming technology to assist lifeguards with their management of swimming pools

Thanks again to Andy Read who was ably supported by Georgina and Leanne. Thanks also to Nicola, Helen, James, Kelly and Donna who helped facilitate and challenge working groups thought processes.

Top 5 Terrifying Drowning Facts

Thought I should share a video my 14 year old son showed me this morning about drowning. He was really amazed about our bodies different pyhsical reactions to drowning in fresh or salt water! As always - the silent drowning fascinated - many questions were asked.

Go underwater. Can't breathe. Die. That's drowning, basically. but a lot of people don't realize that there's actually more to it than that. Welcome Watchmojo's Top 5 Facts. For this list, we're counting down the scariest and most surprising facts about drowning.

Poolview - Saving Lives AND Increasing Efficiencies

Poolview Ltd is the UK's leading manufacturer, supplier and installer of safety swimming pool systems.  Established in 2012 they have installed underwater camera safety systems in over 50 pools UK wide as either part of a refurbishment, new build, or as a stand alone retro-fit.
‘Poolview System’, part of the range of five products produced by Poolview Ltd, is an above water and below swimming pool water CCTV system which digitally records and stores all moving images. Real-time digital video images are relayed to any lifeguard monitoring station in any combination depending on the pools design and risk assessment requirements. The display gives Lifeguards an un-compromised view of below water swimmer activity and behaviour. Lifeguards view these images as part of their 10:20 scan to help with early identification of an incident developing or abnormal events occurring.

 

When a swimmer is observed getting into difficulty, or the likelihood of an incident developing is unfolding the Lifeguard will initiate their normal ‘Emergency Action Procedures’ by either taking quick preventative action or activate the pool side alarm for additional assistance.
Lead time from a request to install ranges from 4 to 12 weeks depending on the size of the project.  Robin McGloughlin, Sales Director of Poolview Ltd explains, “new builds are usually an 18 month operation with Poolview engineers working with the client from when they are first casting the tank then return a year later just before they fill the pool to install the cameras.  We then arrive on site the last two weeks before handover and complete the installation and training whilst retro-fits can be completed in less than a week”.

Operators can reduce their lifeguarding costs saving between £6k and £20k in a 12 month period through a streamlining lifeguard attendance due to the addition technological safety features of Poolview.  Payback of an installation can be as little as six months.  Further and much more substantial cost reductions can be made when Poolview is introduced to specifically cover “small area” difficult blind spots enabling alternative methods of lifeguarding to be introduced.

Andy Read, Safety & Quest Manager at Places for People has overseen the installation of 30+ Poolview systems at individual facilities throughout the UK with a further 6 new builds installations to come over the coming months.  Andy Read said “We have partnered with Poolview Limited to make our pools as safe as possible for both swimmers and staff using technology. Installations have been efficiently completed with clear communication throughout the process from the Poolview team.”
“This system has allowed us to further demonstrate our commitment to the Health and Safety Executives (HSE) ‘Plan, Do, Check, Act’ approach to successful Health and Safety management using our ‘SAFE Places for People’ quality management system. The introduction of Poolview to our pools has been a seamless operation from initial contact to launch. The professional support and training aligned to the exceptional product has enabled us to achieve our safety goals and pay back of the system in as little as six months in some cases.”

For further information see www.poolview.co.uk.

 

SenTAG - an alternative Layer of Protection

Acting as a second layer of pool security supporting existing lifeguards and pool operators the SenTAG "Safer Swimming System" wristband continuously monitors depth and time for every bather and alerts the operater if preset thresholds are exceeded. Have a look at the animated movie below to see how the SenTAG Safer Swimming System could be of benefit to your patrons and staff!

The SenTAG DDS system continously monitors depth and time for all wristband users and alerts if the wearer has stayed too long beneath a certain depth. Visit www.sentag.com for more information!

SenTAG pool alarm:

  • supervises every swimmer individually with personally adjusted settings.
  • communicates via ultrasonic frequencies just like the mammals of the ocean.
  • supervise all pool areas such as, standard pools, lazy rivers, wave pools, splash pools etc.
  • registers depth, time and lack of  “motion” (depth changes) below the surface and does not rely on line of sight within the facility.
  • uses retention units to collect the SenTAG security wristbands after use.
  • has low operating, maintenance and support costs.