Open water rescue equipment registry to help emergency workers

A new resource has been launched to help emergency services and first responders know where to find open-water rescue equipment in emergencies.

The Water Rescue Equipment Register – set up by The Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK) and GoodSAM – will allow the public to chart the locations of rescue equipment such as lifebuoys, rescue poles and throw lines along the rivers, canals, coasts and waterways anywhere in the world.

Once the equipment has been registered and verified, a map gets populated with the details of the precise location, type of equipment and any unique or distinguishing details. It is then used by the emergency services or first responders in the case of an emergency incident, reducing precious time wasted locating lifesaving rescue equipment and providing a higher chance of a successful outcome to the rescue.

The Water Rescue Equipment Register has been incorporated into the GoodSAM app, which was launched in 2013 with an aim to change the response to cardiac arrests.

The app-based system alerts registered individuals trained in lifesaving skills to the occurrences of incidents in their locality so that they can attend while an ambulance is en route. There are more than a million users in the UK and, on average, a trained responder is deployed every three minutes to a cardiac arrest.

The app also hosts the world’s largest defibrillator register as well as other lifesaving equipment registers including fire equipment and bleed kits.