Posted By Merv Newman When I was first named as HSE manager the first aid boxes were in a poor state. I made a deal with a supplier to get them properly stocked and also had a good price on home first aid kits. The company agreed to pay half and all employees were offered a kit for about £1. Most of them took it up and there was little subsequent pilferage. What there was was replaced without much comment and finally when the "home market" was saturated the pilferage died out. We had about 250 employees and recorded roughly 20 to 30 first aid injuries per year. No LTIs or other recordables in the six years I was on the job. My next job was in an engineering plant of 500 employees. We had a full time nurse and lots of first aiders. One LTI in 10 years, 3 recordables and averaged 25 first aid cases per year. During that period we fired one employee for persistent unsafe behaviour and disciplined another when he injured himself after short circuiting a safety device. Disciplining employees may occasionally be necessary (but it is not the HSE persons job to apply it or even recommend it - that is an HR function). A friendly, kind and caring manner is much more effective, and can be fun.

Posted By Michael Griffith Hi all, I posted this on the other thread first but i could really do with a serious answer from anyone who is generous enough to give one. At the company i work for, each First Aider is supplied with their own personel First Aid Kit (free of any charge), and no one else has got any access to these. One first aider is then responsible for replacing any used items and also for frequently checking the 'use before' dates on the items in all the First Aid Boxes. The reason we adopted this way was so if anyone injured themselves even slightly which would just require a plaster, they would have to see a First Aider for one. The First Aider then makes an entry of the accident in the accident book immediately after treating the IP (we only allow first aiders to fill out the book, but we encourage all employees to report any accident no matter how small so the accident book can be filled out). After reading some of the comments in the other thread, i am now wondering if the way we do things is wrong. Could anyone let me know if the way we do things is O.K> or are we leaving ourselves open? Cheers, Mick

Posted By David A Jones At our office complexes all first aiders are issued with a first aid kit (20 person kit) and we also have another kit available at reception. Although most people would know the first aiders in their area we also have a one number phone call system that rings all first aiders simultaneously - so if you can't see a first aider locally then just ring the number and you will get a response. We don't have a hard copy accident book - we use a centralised computer reporting system (managed in accordance with data protection requirements). We insist on all 'first aid' treatment being reported, even if it is only replacement of a plaster that they came into work with - this may be over the top, but it avoids the grey area around accident reporting of whether it is work related or not (i.e. that decision is taken away from the individuals) - it's suprising what may initially seem not to be work related, but has been influenced by work.

Posted By Sean Fraser I've recently taken on a position within a manufacturing company and use of the first aid boxes is a persistent issue. Some of the responses here have been very useful in guiding my thoughts. We are considering separating plasters from the main FA boxes so they are more accessible and allows us to make sure that FA boxes are properly stocked as they won't be used so often. There is still the issue of reporting use of the kits and hence associated incidents but we will handle that in due course. The pliferproof plasters is a good idea - I know that Seton sell a plaster-only dispenser as we have one here and I am considering adding a few more around the place to implement the above idea. I'm also going to get a routine briefing out to FA personnel with a short quiz - I found inter-active examples on a website for a training company called Abertay: http://www.abertaytraining.co.uk/ (You might need to register first) which gives some ideas on how to structure multiple guess questions. Keeping in touch with the First Aiders will encourage them to keep their knowledge up to date so it is avaialable if and when needed. I will also be marking up all the boxes and stations with a sign that states all injury incidents must be recorded. We will consider if we want to hold routine practical FA training sessions or even mock-emergency exercises. I did respond to the HSE consultation on revision of the FA regs and I agreed that certified training would be more effective if it was annual rather than the 3 years it is now - at least it guarantees knowledge is being refreshed. After all, we all hope that we never need to use first-aid skills in our workplace, but it needs to be there in case it ever is.

Posted By David A Jones Totally agree with you Kate

Posted By Mike Craven Mick Where I can see a potential problem is in the filling out of the accident book/form. I always insist that - as far as possible - the injured person should complete it. I realise that this isn't always possible because the injured person may be a child, people have differing levels of literacy, the injured person may not use English as his/her written language; in such cases, we would either look for a representative (eg parent, etc) to complete the form. At the very least, I would expect the injured person or their representative to sign the report/accident "book" entry. The reason for this is that in case of future litigation, you don't want the court to be saying, "Here is the accident book/report Mr X, is that what happened?", only to be told, "No, that is XXX Ltd's version of events"!! I seem to recall that the last accident book issued by the Stationery Office prior to the new Data Protection Act considerations coming into force actually had a section for the injured person to confirm that the accident book entry was correct. Of course there is the situation where the injured person may have been taken to hospital unconscious, broken both hands, had their hands chopped-off, etc and be physically unable to sign. Perhaps someone will start a new thread next week, asking if such people can be dismissed for breaking health and safety rules by not completing an accident report form!!! Mike

Posted By Michael Griffith sorry....... The above should have said Mike Regards, Mick

Posted By John Murgatroyd The first aid equipment is supposed to be "easily available" Whether being locked up is that, is open to interpretation I suppose. The incident book record of the accident/incident is supposed to be "accurate", I suppose a manager could fill it in and be accurate. My past memories suggest that in the event of a small company it will not be accurate. In any event, the incident book is not supposed to be locked away. Although the tear-off pages are. As to first aiders, we have had one who removed his name from the list stating that he was worried about personal liability. Another who is nearly qualified to proffessional level, and another who I wouldn't let dress a doll let alone a wound. In any case, all wounds needing more than a plaster go to hospital and the first aiders are not qualified to remove foreign objects from eyes, so those go to hosital as well. Basically, those trained to the basic level shouldn't be allowed to do much anyway.