What do we expect of our emergency services? Good Community rapport, assistance in an emergency, life saving efforts? These are all things that spring to mind but should we be concerned that health and safety regulations in place are going to prevent them from carrying out all of these points?
One Scottish headline to hit today’s news would lead me to say yes.
This will be a shocking and disappointing story for many of you to read but I think it is important for our blog readers to be aware of developments involving such services.
An inquiry is currently underway at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court following the death of Alison Hume. Ms Hume was killed after falling some 40 feet in to a shaft in Galston in July 2008.
Ms Humes daughter discovered her and called for the fire brigade immediately. It is understood that the accident happened in the early hours of the morning and the crews were initially hampered by darkness and mist. Visibility was reduced to only 1 metre but eventually one member of the fire crew was lowered in to the shaft to provide Ms Hume with first aid and oxygen – you’re probably thinking that this all sounds relatively normal procedure so far but you will be shocked at the events that followed…
However, the fire crew were unable to physically rescue Ms Hume from the shaft due to new health and safety polices which were in place. The fire crew were supplied with safe working at height equipment and were fully trained on their use; however this could only be used to bring up another firefighter and not a member of the public!
Instead, Ms Hume had to lay for some 6 hours in clear pain and distress until the mountain rescue experts arrived on scene. Unfortunately Ms Hume suffered a fatal heart attack as she was brought to the surface.
The senior fire officer at the scene has confirmed that it would have been possible to save Ms Hume if it wasn’t for the health and safety memo they had received only 4 months earlier in March 2008.
This inquiry is currently continuing and I shall keep you posted on the developments but I find it shocking that the people that you would rely on to rescue you in such circumstances are now being hampered by what can only be described as ‘ludicrous‘ health and safety laws.
The question we will all ask ourselves is, had Ms Hume been rescued by the fire crew would she have been saved? I am not a medical expert but there was probably a much better chance of survival should she have been rescued many hours earlier.
