Getting Adequate Medical Facility Coverage for a Music Festival Site.

Music festivals with inadequate medical facilities for the size of the event will always create adverse publicity, especially if there are any serious injuries or poor treatment. How can festival organisers calculate the medial facility coverage they will need based on the anticipated number of festival-goers in attendance.

History is littered with examples of music festivals that encountered issues related to overcrowding and other disasters that have caused festival-goer injuries. The quick treatment and care of any injured people will often depend on the medical facilities available on each occasion. Inadequate medical coverage can lead to numerous untreated individuals or make minor injuries worse. Location and access to facilities are also factors in getting rapid treatment to those that need it. 

Typical Festival Site Medical Facilities. 
The medical facilities provided on a music festival site will depend on the size of the event and number of festival-goers in attendance. Organisers will need to consider a mix of medical facilities to provide, these can range from simple first aid stations to fully equipped ambulances. Whilst first aid stations can provide basic treatment run by a qualified first aider a medical tent will have more sophisticated equipment and have qualified medical personnel like paramedics, nurses and doctors. Uniquely for festival sites the facilities may also cater for mental health and substance abuse emergencies. 

Planning and Risk Assessment. 
The planning phase for any music festival will almost always require a risk assessment of the event which will include understanding the potential requirements for medical facilities. The risk assessment is documented and used as part of the licensing process and also requires approval by health and safety inspectors. Thorough planning can model traffic flow of festival-goers around a site depending on the layout and design. This can indicate the ideal location on the site for any medical facilities which should be easily accessible by festival-goers and provide routes for quick egress when an emergency requires transfers to a local hospital. 

Calculating Medical Coverage. 
There is plenty of guidance available in the public domain and any online search will provide various suggestions on the medical facility requirements based on the event attendance numbers. Typically, guidance indicates the following: 

• 5,000 or less attendees
  2 x first aid posts
  6 x first aiders
  1 x nurse
  Access to a local ambulance

• 5,000 to 20,000 attendees
  4 x first aid posts
  12 x first aiders
  4 x nurses
  2 x paramedics
  1 x doctor
  2 x on-site ambulances

• 20,000 to 50,000 attendees
  8 x first aid posts
  20 x first aiders
  6 x nurses 
  4 x paramedics 
  2 x doctors
  4 x on site ambulances 

Implementation of Facilities on site. 
The recruitment and confirmation of all medical staff and facilities must be done in good time before an event and appropriate access passes allocated. The location on a festival site of all medical facilities should be highlighted on site layout apps, printed maps and physical signage erected on site. Pre-event briefing with all medial staff can establish communication protocols along with emergency and escalation procedures. 

For festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Image by AndrzejRembowski via Pixabay

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