How to Summer Safely: 3 must-haves at your holiday hotel

July has officially landed on our calendars, which leaves just a few weeks until the school holidays commence and preparation for a summer break begins! 

So, cast your mind back to that day you were planning that all-important holiday, picking and choosing your location, hotel and overall package… We can bet we know a few things that you gave some fair consideration when choosing:

• Flight time
• Star rating
• Good reviews
• White, sandy beaches
• Comfy beds
• Central location

The above are all obvious factoring aspects when it comes to selecting your final holiday, but have you considered overall safety for you and your family before you embark on your summer adventure? In this blog, we cover why these three following factors should be on your deciding list.

First Aid Kits

Here in the UK, it is the legal duty of employers, including hotels, to ensure that adequate and appropriate facilities, equipment and personnel are provided to ensure that employees receive immediate attention if they are injured or take ill at work.

Depending upon the workplace environment will help determine what is ‘adequate and appropriate’, this means a hotel’s facilities would be completely different to a warehouse environment or construction site.  

However, these regulations do not place a legal duty upon employers to make first aid provisions for non-employees; this would include the general public and even children in schools, however, the HSE strongly recommends that these are included in the first aid assessment of needs and are included in the provision.

Whilst you can have confidence that your UK hotel will be equipped with an effective first aid kit by law, other holidaying destinations such as Europe, Asia or the Caribbean may require further investigation into the requirements placed upon them as businesses. Prior to booking, it may be worth your time considering this so you’ll know whether or not your hotel of choice will have the precautions in place, in case of a medical emergency.

Defibrillator

Despite being the only device, which can help a victim of cardiac arrest, alongside effective CPR, defibrillators are not a legal requirement for businesses here in the UK.

Cardiac arrest does not discriminate who it attacks, meaning it can happen to anyone at any time; including the elderly and even children.  

Cardiac arrests are caused by an electrical malfunction in the heart causing it to stop beating and quiver instead. As the heart quivers, it cannot pump blood around the body to the other vital organs or the muscles, meaning they are deprived of oxygen.

If treatment is delivered to the casualty within 3-5 minutes of collapse, their survival chance will increase from 6% to 74%, but if they don’t receive treatment, their chance will decrease 10% per minute. These statistics speak for themselves and it is vital that treatment is delivered as swiftly as possible to provide the casualty with the greatest chance of survival.

The treatment required is a potentially life-saving shock from a defibrillator and effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The defibrillator will analyse the patient’s heart rhythm and decide whether the patient requires a shock or not – it is important for both trained and non-trained users to remember that if no shock is required, no shock will be delivered. CPR should be delivered before and after the defibrillator is used and delivered on the ratio of 30 compressions to 2 rescue breaths.

Whilst AED accessibility isn’t always listed under your hotel’s amenities, we advise emailing your hotel or ringing them ahead of time to find out whether your hotel of residence is heart safe for you and the family.

Trained Personnel

So your hotel has a first aid kit – great! But are there hotel employees trained to use the kit to its full advantage in the event of a first aid emergency?

First aid training is a simple requirement; however, this kind of qualification isn’t always as present in the industries it really should be to ensure the safety of guests. We recommend enquiring ahead of time whether hotel staff are equipped with first aid skills to take action should it be required whilst staying on their premises.

Where do you spend the majority of your holiday? If you’re anything like the imperative team, it’ll by the waterside on a sun lounger with a heavy paperback! Pool and beach safety is vital which is why qualified Lifeguards are an absolute must in any pool environment. Our Pool Safety courses provide all the information they need to work safely around a pool area and all lifeguards should be equipped with a first aid qualification to ensure they can provide life-saving care, should it be required.

Happy Holidays

So, when it comes to you booking your holiday next year, are you going to consider these other three aspects on top of your usual list of deciding factors?

We can’t wait for the holidays, but we want to hear where you’re jetting off to this year! Head on over to our Twitter page @imptraining and let us know where you’ll be sunning yourself this summer.