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- Date published: 23/10/2020
Who Should Be First
Aid Trained In My Workplace?
How Important is
first aid?
First aid is incredibly important within your workplace and
should be implemented into any workplace health and safety procedure. There are many reasons
for first aid being so important within the workplace. One it saves lives and
also first aid has a big impact on someone’s chances of recovery, it can make a
big difference between a person having short or longer term complications. Another
reason for the importance of having individuals within your workplace first aid
trained is that competent first aid trained individuals can reduce the amount
of pain experienced by casualties. With that in mind you now may be wondering
who and how many should be trained in first aid in your workplace, in this blog
I will outline the guidance for this.
Some First Aid Stats
-
140,000 people die each year in situations where first aid could have
helped save their lives.
-
Up to 150,000 adults a year could be given a chance to
live – if more people knew first aid, that includes thousands of children.
-
41% of people admit that it would take something as
severe as the death of a loved one to make them learn first aid.
What’s the Law on
the required number of first aiders within a workplace?
The straight forward answer to this question is there is not
an exact number, it all depends on the circumstances of the workplace. The HSE
recommends that if you work in a company that has 5-50 workers, there should be
at least one person first aid trained. A good way to ensure that you have the
adequate number of first aid trainers is to carry out a risk assessment.
Another common question is how often do you need first aid training, the
recommend answer is every 3 years.
Completing a first
aider risk assessment
So the overall objective of a risk assessment process is to identify and evaluate hazards, once done then you must figure out how you will remove the hazards or minimize them as much as possible this can be done through control measures. When it comes to first aider risk assessments you want to have shown to the relevant authorities such as your local authorities and the HSE that on your risk assessment you have fairly assessed how many first aiders you believe your organisation should have.
Other Considerations
So you now may have followed the recommendations from the HSE
and come to the conclusion that you need 1 first aid trained individual. But
what is your plan if that individual is sick or on holiday, do you have another
worker in place that has the same level of training for example.
Also your business may have a lot of visitors regularly so
how does this then affect your risk assessment; do you need to appoint another
first aider just in case. It might be you have a lot of children visitors so it
may be useful to have someone trained in paediatric first aid. These are all necessary and
important considerations to be reviewed.
Appointing an
individual
Is there a difference between an
appointed person and a first aider?
So an appointed person is somebody that is in charge
of the first aid arrangements for that business. This involves looking after
and maintaining the first aid kit and calling an ambulance in the event of an
emergency. An appointed person should not attempt first aid that they are not
trained in.
A first aider is an individual qualified to give first
aid treatment.
It is advised that for workplaces that are high risk with
fewer than 5 employees and low risk with employees fewer than 25 that
appointing an individual is recommended. It’s important that you have an
appointed person in place in case of an emergency.
Further resources
First
Aid Requirements Calculator - Use this calculator to work out the first aid
requirements for your business.
Also
at Libben Health and Safety we have a whole range of health and safety
courses including first aid courses such as first aid at work and emergency first aid.
Let me help you spend some money :)