Do you have an emergency response plan for your remote worksite?

 Here are a few points to consider when formalizing your Emergency Response Plan (ERP)’s

• Location / Terrain – Where is your site and what’s the access like? Include grid reference, street address if possible and describe access routes in detail.

• Communication – We like to divide this into two categories external and internal communication procedures.  External is normally mobile and satellite phones, as establishing two-way communication is critical in any emergency. Internal is usually between on site staff and these can range from UHF radios at local sites to satellite phones if working across a number of sites. Ensure all phone numbers and radio frequencies are listed on documents and coverage of communication equipment listed.

• Communication Flow / Call Guide – who needs to be called and when.

• Support Staff – Dose your organization have support staff that can be called to assist in a emergency, these can be a base contact, media contact, and grief counselor just to name a few.

• Definition of an Emergency – Important to list as what one-person perceives as an emergency may not be an emergence to another and vis versa. Its important that organizations establishes what a emergency is and that they have appropriately tiered Response Action Plans (EAP) constructed for staff to follow

• Emergency Action Plans (EAP) – A plan for staff to follow for your most likely emergencies e.g. medical emergency, bushfire emergency, car accident, fall from height, lost person or group, hazardous chemicals, bomb threats, armed confrontations and natural disasters and staff evacuations. These are step-by-step procedures.

•  Evacuation Sites – consider where your staff will assemble in the event of emergency and don’t forget to include an air evacuation site with latitude longitude recorded in the EAP and ERP.  Procedures need to be listed and decision-making criteria discussed for site evacuations.

• Nearest Emergency Contacts – list the nearest emergency agencies and their direct contact details and address.

Theses are just a few points of consideration when formalizing your Emergency Response Plans for your remote worksite.  For more information check out some of the links below or feel free to contact us to have a chat about how we can help you create a more compliant risk and safety system.

Safe Work Australia – Emergency Plans Fact Sheet

Safe Work Australia – Managing the Work Environment and Facilities

Keith McReynolds

Remote Safety Solution