Rescue plan
The arrangements, planned before the work starts, for recovering a person from a confined space, from a harness after a fall, or from a stranded MEWP, without relying on the emergency services arriving in time.
The Work at Height Regulations and the Confined Spaces Regulations both require that emergency and rescue arrangements be planned in advance. A worker hanging in a harness after an arrested fall can lose consciousness from suspension trauma within minutes; a worker collapsed in a confined space is dead by the time the fire service arrives; a worker stranded in a MEWP basket at height with a machine fault or a medical episode needs bringing down now. The rescue plan says how: the equipment on site (rescue kit for lowering a suspended worker, tripod and winch and breathing apparatus for the confined space, ground controls and emergency descent for the MEWP), the people trained to use it and present during the work, the communications, and the point at which the emergency services are called anyway.
The plan is specific to the task and the location and is briefed with the RAMS. It is tested: the ground controls of the MEWP are operated at the pre-use check, the rescue kit is inspected, the top person at the confined space knows the procedure without reading it. "Call 999" is the backstop; on its own it is not a rescue plan, and the regulations say so.
Where it comes from
- Work at Height Regulations 2005 reg.4(2): planning for emergencies and rescue.
- Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 reg.5: emergency arrangements, which must not depend on the public emergency services.
- Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 reg.30: emergency procedures.
Questions people ask
Why can I not rely on the fire service?
Because the regulations say the confined space arrangements must not depend on them, and because the physiology says the person in the harness or the chamber has minutes, not the twenty or more the emergency services need. Your plan gets the person out; the ambulance takes them from there.
Rescue plan, handled on a phone
SiteLynx puts the RAMS, permits, inspections, audits, plant checks and records behind every term in this glossary on the crew's phones, signed on site, with a PDF at the end. 14 days free, no card.
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