A significant part of fire protection in workplaces involves first aid compliance.
By complying with the Work Health and Safety Act and Work Health Safety Regulations, you may be able to prevent and treat injuries to limit their severity.
If you are unsure if your workplace is first aid-compliant or want to know what the process entails, read on.
What Are Your First Aid Responsibilities?
In Australia, every business owner or manager is responsible for ensuring their workers have adequate first aid equipment and facilities. They must also do their best to ensure workers are not exposed to potential health and safety risks.
While owning a first aid kit is the first step to compliance, there can be more to the process than that.
You’ve also got to make sure you’ve got enough supplies for the number of workers in your employment and enough trained people to administer first aid.
The level of first aid training those people require can depend on your type of work. It can be worth performing a risk assessment to find out what hazards could lead to which injuries.
For example, if you work in the hospitality industry, burns are a possible injury. Having plenty of burn treatment options in your first aid kit and people trained in their application can be crucial.
How to Perform Risk Management
Because your first aid requirements may be different from those of other businesses, it’s a good idea to perform risk management. This process is straightforward and could require some of the following things.
- Identifying hazards that could lead to illnesses or injuries
- Assessing any possible injuries from those hazards, how severe they might be, and the likelihood of them happening
- Making sure you have the appropriate training, facilities, and equipment for those injuries and illnesses
Risk management assessment can also involve regularly setting a schedule to ensure you’re reviewing your first aid and fire protection requirements.
During this review, you should know if the number of first aid kits you have is adequate, whether they are fully stocked, whether all your first aid staff have current training, and whether you have identified all workplace hazards.
What Should Feature in a Workplace First Aid Kit?
If you are just starting to work on your first aid compliance, you may not be sure about the best first aid kit for your place of employment. After all, they are all different and set up for different environments.
At a minimum, yours should include supplies for:
- Broken bones
- Burns
- Bleeding
- Bruising
- Cuts, scratches, and splinters
- Amputation
- Eye injuries
- Shock
Your first aid kit should also have the appropriate supplies for injuries you identified during your risk assessment. Make sure the kit is large enough so that all supplies within it are easy to spot and access.
Periodically check to make sure there are no expired items and keep the kit somewhere it won’t be contaminated by dust or moisture.
If you have a large workplace, investing in an automatic defibrillator may be worth your consideration, as can portable shower equipment and eyewash gear.
Trying to comply with first aid compliance can be challenging but worthwhile. The more prepared you are for an emergency or injury, the better the outcome of such an event could be.
