Posted By Paul Leadbetter
Are any of the medical staff competent in first aid?

Paul

Posted By Jay Joshi
Paragraph 7 of L 74, First aid at work,
The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 , ACoP & Guidance, 1997 edition informs that:-

The training and experience of qualified medical doctors registered with the General Medical Council and registered nurses of the Single Professional Register maintained by the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting qualify them to administer first aid.

The employer may take that into account in determining in particular the need for appointing first aiders where such doctors and nurses are employed.

Posted By Swis
Gosh, sometimes I want to head a brick wall.

Are you guys serious in sayin that ARE DOCTORS COMPETENT TO PROVIDE FIRST AID?

or IS THERE A NEED TO PROVIDE REFERENCE TO SUPPORT ARGUEMENT?

how can you compare years of intensive skills and training from THE professionals with few hours of course from a joe blog?

Posted By Swis
"Most doctors and nurses are not trained in first aid at work".

You mean they don't have a first aider certificate from joe blog.

Posted By stephen d clarke
Hi,
Must agree wholeheartedly with Swis on this one and I have heard this argument in the past on more than one occasion. If I needed first aid and had choice of first aider or Dr/nurse I know I would always go for the medical professionals. In an emergency does anyone ask if there is a first aider in the house/plane etc I think not, its a Dr that's called for, as I understand it from the 3Ps rule of first aid - first aiders are there to prevent injury, preserve life and promote recovery until the qualified medical professionals arrive.
Steve

Posted By Paul Duell
I spend my Summer holiday volunteering on the medical team at a large event (12000 camping.caravanning delegates for a fortnight). We have a mixed team of doctors, nurses, first aiders and paramedics/ambulance techs.

On the first day - although we're all trained and qualified in our own field - we all do a refresher session: One of the nurses trains us all (including the doctors) in diabetes care: One of the paramedics trains us all on the defib, etc. In immediate care of life-threatening wounds, application of slings, etc, the first aiders take the lead. Having been at these sessions over a number of years, if I'd slashed my wrist on a rusty nail, I'd rather be cared for by a first aider (initially) than by some of the doctors, especially those from a non-A&E background.

So in answer to the question above "are you saying a doctor isn't competent to apply first aid?", I'd say "I wouldn't presume competence of all doctors, no."

Having said that, in a real (i.e. non-training) situation, I've seen an A&E-experienced doctor defer to the more relevant experience and training of a senior paramedic as well.

Posted By David Bannister
Whilst doctors and nurses do basic training that includes first aid, as a previous poster has said, there is not always a requirement for their skills to be kept up to date.

I doubt whether my GP would be comfortable if she had to do any resuscitation although I would expect her to be able to diagnose and treat a wide range of common medical ailments. Similarly, the nurses who do the ante-natal and immunisation clinics, dressing changes, blood samples etc may well not be up to date in their first aid techniques.

Like many professions, medics tend to specialise. Likewise, H&S professionals will often choose an area of interest, do CPD etc in those areas and their skills in other "core" H&S matters may deteriorate.

I am not competent to advise on anything to do with scaffolding or tunnelling, even though in the dim & distant I was taught the basics.

Posted By Swis
A first aider keeps you alive,
A parmedic keeps you alive
but a doctor would let you die.

As i said earlier, sometime i want to head a brick wall. (Leaving my will to be operated by first aider but not by a doctor)

P.S. All GPs have to work in hospital first. and MBBS MBCHB stands for bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery.

Posted By Dave Wilson
Have a shifty at this

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/web41.pdf

This is the requirements for delivery of FAAW and assessing and Doctors and nurse and paramedics appear to be exempt from holding a certificate but must have evidence as part of their portfolio of work.(within the past 3 years)

This suggests to me that they are classed as first aiders for the workplace because if they can teach it then they must be able to deliver it as needed.

Remember that all these people have to do secondments to casualty depts as part of their overall training and get good first aid skills in there.

Just see the situation where Mrs miggins has a heart attack in a GP surgery and they cant deliver first aid! Get out of here they are first aiders and probably use their skills more than a workplace first aider

Posted By Andy Camroux
In response to Swis: As you said yourself, the whole point of providing first aid is to provide relief before treatment is available. There may be times when a nurse or doctor is not readily available - for example they are providing medical treatment to a patient in a planned appointment - in which case a trained first aider would supply relief until the nurse or doctor becomes available, or emergency help (paramedics) arrive.
The other consideration is competence. In certain environments, experienced first aiders may be more competent than the nearest doctor or nurse.

Posted By Bob Youel
my friend spent many an hour looking after a large hospital and after finding out that the vast majority of qualified medical staff did not understand first aid nor could provide first aid, irrespective of their various specialist areas of knowledge, set up a proper first aid cover just as if he was in a factory

The moral is that just because they are medically qualified does not mean that they know what to do when somebody falls over A&E being the exception

He found out that A&E was being used throughout the hospital cause the other medics did not have the knowledge!

So my advice is to get adequate cover irrespective of academic etc qualifications