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Posted By Nigel Hammond
Do you think first aiders should be made aware of any special medical condition of staff in the building they work at? - such as type 1 diabetes or epilepsy.
Or, is this regarded as private and a matter for the person with the medical condition to decide whether to divulge such info? Any comments welcome. Thanks.
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Posted By Ron Young
They should be but only with the consent of the sufferer and then kept confidential.
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Posted By Nigel Hammond
Thanks for your reply Ron. This leads me on to another question.
How would a first aider know there is a problem? Should medical screening by occ health service tell the line manager of people with such medical conditions? This would then enable the line manager to encourage the person with the condition to tell the first aider. Or do you think this is overstepping the mark with confidentiality
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Posted By Ron Young
Nigel,
My thoughts are that if Occ Health deem it necessary and with the permission of the peson(s) concerned, line managers and first aiders should be informed of the relevant condition. Sometimes confidentiality has to be compromised if a person who suffers from an illness has the likelihood of needing assistance at work. I've had several instances where insulin dependant diabetics had to get assistance from me and the first aid team. We used to keep several phials of "hypostop" (provided by the diabetic) for use in times of need. We provided the first aiders with a booklet explaining the symptoms of hypoglycaemia and that worked well. I've never had any problems about the lack of confidentiality but in essence those that need to know, should know
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Posted By Stuart Nagle
So far as I am aware, persons with medical conditions that could effect not only their own health and safety at work, but the health and safety of other persons are required to advise their employers of the condition(s).
If the condition(s) is likely to manifest itself and require first aid attention, the first aiders should be aware of it, but this can only be done with the consent of the employees, so far as I am aware, unless the person is employed in an industry of high risk nature, in which case it is unlikely that the person or persons would be charged with a task that caused such additional risk - i.e. medical grounds for the employer to exclude that person or persons from that type of work.
The same could be true for certain types of work involving machinery or other processes, where loss of consciouness could result in an accident etc...
Stuart
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Posted By James M
Put the shoe on the other foot. If you were a first aider and you tried to save someone's life and were unable to do so because of some red tape, how would you feel?
I'd be gutted. What about the stress and the torment the first aider would go through?
Are you restricting a first aider from carrying out his duties by failing to provide critical information? Could you be held responsible for this?
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Posted By John Murgatroyd
What duties are those ?
The person injured can just tell the first aider to get lost.
The first aider has no legal right to treat someone, and in the case of his "help" injuring the party further he can be held legally responsible for the injuries. So, if his "help" actually leads to the death of someone, he can also be prosecuted for that offence as well.
Our companies first aid guys are nor ALLOWED to treat anyone, they just give a "he's ok" of "hospital" comment. They are not evem allowed to remove a foreign object from the eye. Treatment is what those with medical quals do...check with your insurance...and while you're at it, check the guy with diabetes is insured....
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Posted By Laurie
I always seek the patients permission to tell the first aiders(s) and the line manager. This has never yet been refused.
In practice I have always found that sufferers from such controllable conditions fully brief at least one special "buddy" colleague who knows exactly what to do
Laurie
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Posted By James M
John,
your first aiders are therefore not first aiders and you obviously do not know the role of a first aider.
1. To save life.
2. To prevent the injury from worsening and reassure the casualty.
3. To get the casualty to medical aid asap
Removing a foreign object from a wound is not a recongised practice.
I believe you are confused between a first aider and an appointed person.
I like your priorities though, I won't be able to treat you mate, (even though you are minutes away from death) my insurance says I can't.
Remind me NOT to buddy up with you in times of trouble!!
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Posted By Andy Curry
The dangers of giving more personal medical information to first aid staff, in my opinion, are two fold:
First aiders are generally members of the workforce who have to carry out their daily duties operating machinery, driving, etc. To ask them to expand their first aid training to cover more complex medical conditions such as alzheimers, diabetes, etc. would, in my opinion, be impracticable. First aid staff would need very regular first aid refresher training to maintain their knowledge and businesses would lose financially due to time away from the shopfloor for first aiders to train.
I travel to many small businesses that have difficulty getting staff to train in first aid due to scare stories of prosecutions or lack of funding for training (having to train in their own time). If these staff were told that they where going to be given even more medical information about colleagues or responsibility for treatment of medical conditions, recruitment of first aiders, I suspect, would prove even more difficult.
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Posted By Kate Graham
As a first aider I much prefer to know that somebody has diabetes or epilepsy. How to deal with these conditions is part of First Aid at Work training - it's not an extra. With diabetes, it helps to know because otherwise it is easy to confuse the symptoms with something else. With epilepsy, it helps to know because a first-time fit is dealt with differently. Informing the first aider is really for the benefit of the person with the condition and it is up to them whether they do or not.
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Posted By Nigel Hammond
Thanks very much to you all for your advice. Lots of food for thought. There seem to be lots of differing opinions though, so I'm still not sure which way to turn! Does anyone know of some way of getting an official answer to this one?
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Posted By John Murgatroyd
With reference to the divulging of information.
This can only be done with the written permission of the person concerned.
My workplace has 2 appointed persons, and 1 first aider. Trained to ambulance tech standard by St John ambulance (he liked it so he went further than first aid)
This is the workplace where a guy collapsed with chest pain and the management wouldn't call an ambulance.
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Posted By Ian Forster
I'm a quailifed 1st Aider, paid for by my employeer, but I took out additional liabilty insurance provided by St Johns Ambulance,(just incase some ambulance chaser and a no win no fee victim tried to fleece me). As the title says 1st Aid, to maintain life until the professionals get there.
I hope if ever needed I can do that, as long as I did my best to presevre life as i've been trained by a reconised organisation I've done my job, I haven't been trained to give pills, tablets, sprays under tongues or even to apply sticky plaster, purely to maintain life.
Any medical contions shouldn't effect my ability to do my best, on the other hand, the emergency services should know as their actions, medications could have adverse effects.
What about sealed envelopes with Emergency Medical conditions in side them, only to be opened in an event of medical assistance.
Any information would remain confidential and only be disclosed as and when needed.
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