Well, it all depends on your business! What do you do? How many employees? Where are you based? What risks are there in your workplace? And do the items in your kit look as ancient as the one's from my mum's car kit?!
There is no mandatory list of items, so your decision on what to include and what to leave out should be based on what you think might be needed to deal with incidents or accidents that could feasibly happen in your organisation. Your ‘first aid needs assessment’ is key to determining what you require in your kit (see below for further information).
HSE recommend the following as a minimum:
• Guidance leaflet
• 20 assorted shape/sized plasters
• 2 sterile eye dressings
• 2 individually wrapped triangular bandages (preferably sterile)
• 6 safety pins
• 2 large unmedicated sterile wound dressings
• 6 medium unmedicated sterile wound dressings
• At least 3 pairs of disposable gloves
This is a very basic list and does not take into account any specific injuries or risks you may identify as part of your ‘first aid needs assessment’. Your kit must be ‘suitably stocked’ – but what does that mean? The basic items above might suffice for a small office, for example, but is unlikely to be sufficient for a large building site, small manufacturing business or a large office-based organisation. Completing your ‘first aid needs assessment’ will help you identify what to provide.
Additional items you might want to add depending upon your business include:
• a foil blanket (for shock / situations where hypothermia may occur);
• micropore and non-adherent dressings;
• gauze;
• sterile saline (for washing out eyes and wounds);
• cleansing wipes (for cleaning wounds);
• resuscitation face shield;
• tuff cut scissors (for cutting through clothing);
• finger dressings;
• cold/ice packs.
In practice many businesses buy an off-the-shelf kit, often labelled as conforming to BS8599 – this is usually fine for small businesses with no significant identified risks. However the items included and the quantity of individual items, whole kits and potentially travel kits should all be determined by completing or updating your first aid needs assessment.
How Can Winterbury Training Help You?
a) We offer a free 30 minute virtual meeting / phone call to either help you complete or update your first aid needs assessment or complete it fully on your behalf (please ask for our Guide to First Aid Requirements for SMEs and/or our First Aid Needs Assessment Template)
b) We can provide a more detailed guide to your first aid kit contents, how to use them and how to determine the quantity of kits you should provide. Please ask for our Corporate First Aid Kits guidance.
c) As part of the assessment we can put together a list of items you should have in your kit(s) and provide a personalised checklist for your kit(s)
d) We provide individual first aid kit items and full kits to businesses, families and individuals at wholesale prices to ensure you are prepared for any eventuality at lower than commercial prices. Please ask for our First Aid Price List.
e) We can advise on any other aspect of physical and mental health first aid provision and training for your organisation as required.
To obtain any of the above documents (free of charge, no need to sign up to anything!) or for further guidance, support or to book a 30 minutes free consultation call for your first aid needs assessment, email info@winterburytraining.co.uk or call 07584 732119.
Winterbury Training provides high quality and engaging training courses in physical and mental health first aid, safeguarding and food safety in South Wiltshire, North Dorset and West Hampshire.