It is regulated that all employers should have suitable first aid kits on site for all their employees. The first aid kit for businesses should comply with set standards and if businesses do not have them they face fines and even litigation. It is important that employees understand that not all first aid boxes are the same, people in an engineering work area need different medical provisions to those working in an office for example. When there is a higher risk of a work accident or injury and those injuries are more likely to be of a serious type then employees need to be as prepared as they can be.
Risk assessments
This means employers need to ensure adequate risk assessments are performed in the different work environments they have employees operating in. Assessing the hazards and how serious they are. This is the best way to determine the type of first aid kit for work that is needed, what should be in it and how large it should be. There are also certain circumstances that need to be taken into account such as how remote the workplace is in terms of emergency services, whether workers work on a shift rotation and so on.
Contents to consider
The risk assessment should help you judge what to look for in the first aid kit for business, and also how much of each item you need to keep. With a larger workforce, you will need more first aid kits and more supplies inside each one. You will also need someone in charge of monitoring the kits, restocking them, and replacing items that go out of date. You would consider kits containing contents such as the following;
- Small, medium and large sterile dressing
- Triangular single-use bandages
- Gloves
- Mask
- Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation device
- Sterile eye pad dressing
- Different plasters in shapes and sizes
- Cleaning wipes
- Sterile wipes
- Safety pins of different sizes
- A foil blanket
- Finger dressings
- Tape
- Burn relief dressing
- Scissors
- Eyewash
- Conforming bandage
- Tweezers
- Antiseptic and antibiotic cream
- Painkillers
see also: First Aid Certification
Changing attitudes
There is in some workplaces a feeling like there is no need for such assessments and that making them something enforced is a step too far. But it is the unfortunate case that when employers are not made to consider the health and safety of their workers, they often do not, because it costs less money and because it is less work and hassle.
Thankfully this kind of attitude is becoming less so but there are still ignorant people and so employers who do not follow the rules will face some serious consequences. Even when workers wear proper safety clothing and follow protocols and are trained correctly, accidents can still happen. Having someone trained in first aid with the right kind of first aid kit for work could be all the difference should someone slice off their finger on a machine and need the blood flow staunches until the emergency services arrive. That saves lives.
