First Aid Provision in your Work Place

The Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 require you to provide adequate and appropriate first aid equipment, facilities and people so your employees can be given immediate help if they are injured or taken ill at work.

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  • Close up of green first aid case.

Some small workplaces with low level hazards may only require a minimum provision for first aid, but to ascertain what is required a first aid risk assessment should be carried out to ensure that provision is appropriate to the circumstances (hazard and risks) of the workplace.

 The minimum first aid provision in any workplace is:

  • A suitably stocked first aid kit
  • An appointed person to take charge of first aid requirements
  • Information for employees about first aid arrangements

First Aid Box

There is no mandatory list of items to put in a first aid box. It will depend on what you assess your needs to be. The following is a guide where work activities involve low level hazards.

  • Individually wrapped sterile plasters in assorted sizes appropriate to the type of work.
  • Sterile eye pads.
  • Individually wrapped triangular bandages.
  • Safety pins.
  • Large and medium, individually wrapped, sterile, un-medicated wound dressings.
  • Disposable gloves.

For further help and advice why not send one or more of your staff on an ‘Emergency First Aid at Work’ course run by What No Safety?