Requirements for a workplace and home first aid kit

The aims of first aid include preserving life, preventing injury from getting worse, aiding recovery, and protecting the unconscious.

A well-stocked first aid kit, kept within easy reach, is essential for every home. Having the right supplies ahead of time will help you handle an emergency at a moment’s notice. Keep a first aid kit in your home and one in your car. Also ensure that you have your first aid kit with you when you go on holiday or on road trips.

You can buy a first aid kit already stocked or make one of your own to suit your needs and that of your activities that you and your family enjoy.

In the workplace there is legislation that needs to be complied with. In terms of the Occupational Health and Safety act No 85 of 1993 – General Safety Regulations – Section 3.

3. First aid, emergency equipment and procedures

(1)  An employer shall take all reasonable steps that are necessary under the circumstances, to ensure that persons at work receive prompt first aid treatment in case of injury or emergency.

(2)  Where more than five employees are employed at a workplace, the employer of such employees shall provide a first aid box or boxes at or near the workplace which shall be available and accessible for the treatment of injured persons at that workplace.

(3)  (a) Taking into account the type of injuries that are likely to occur at a workplace, the nature of the activities performed and the number of employees employed at such workplace, the employer shall make sure that the first aid box or boxes contemplated in sub-regulation (2) contain suitable first aid equipment which include at least the equipment listed in the Annexure hereto.

(4)  Where more than 10 employees are employed at a workplace, the employer of such employees shall take steps to ensure that for every group of up to 50 employees at that workplace, or in the case of a shop or an office as contemplated in the Basic Conditions of employment Act, 1983 (Act No. 3 of 1983), for every group of up to 100 employees, at least one person is readily available during normal working hours, who is in possession of a valid certificate of competency in first aid.

(5)  An employer shall at a workplace where a high risk substance or toxic, corrosive or similar hazardous substances are used, handled, processed or manufactured, ensure that the first aid worker contemplated in subregulation (4) is trained in the first aid procedures that are necessary for the treatment of injuries that may result from such activities, including the acute detrimental effects of exposure to such substances, and in the emergency procedures which are necessary in the case of accidental leakage or dumping of such substances.

(6)  An employer shall affix a prominent notice or sign in a conspicuous place at a workplace, indicating where the first aid box or boxes are kept as well as the name of the person in charge of such first aid box or boxes.

(7)  An employee with an open wound, cut, sore or any similar injury, who works in a workplace where a substance contemplated in subregulation 5 is used, handled, processed or manufactured, shall report such injury to his employer forthwith. The employer may not permit such employee to continue working before the injury has been cleaned with soap and water or with a diluted disinfectant.

(8)  Where an employee is exposed or can be exposed to a potential hazard of injury to the eye through contact with a biological or chemical substance, the employer concerned shall make sure that there is an eyewash fountain or any similar facilities, in the immediate vicinity of the workplace of such employee and that the employee is trained in the use thereof.

(9)  Where an employee at a workplace is exposed or can be exposed to a potential hazard of injury to or absorption through the skin as a result of sudden contact with a large amount of toxic, corrosive, high risk or similar hazardous substance, the employer concerned shall make sure that there is a fast-reacting deluge-shower with clean water or a similar facility in the immediate vicinity of the workplace of such employee and that the employee is trained in the use thereof.

Download the full April 2023 Newsletter below: