Rank: Forum user 
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Originally Posted by: A Kurdziel  As I said there is no Good Samaritan law in this country: we are not expected to put ourselves out as ordinary citizens’ to help our fellow citizens. Brutal but true: when you see a drug addict lying unconscious in the park, you do not see a mass of people coming over to help them. One or two volunteers may come over to see what they can do but the majority will simply ignore the person as is their right in law (maybe not morally but definitely legally). The police do not turn up threatening people with prosecution for failing to help a fellow citizen.
I think you are completely misunderstanding the point and the issue raised by the OP. We are not talking about a random person finding another person in need on the street. In that case yes you are right. But the point is this is a place of work which holds an entirely different legal status and statutory requirements. Look at paragraph 73 of L74 re additional training needs. http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l74.pdf
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Rank: Super forum user 
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The question in the original post was whether it was a good idea to issue Epipens to deal with anaphylactic shock cases. From the original posters further comments it became clear that the recipients of this help were student living in some sort of University accommodation (5000+) .
The forum on the whole agreed it was acceptable to do this as long as the first aiders were given suitable training. Unfortunately the original poster then said that, after consultation with their first aiders, they were refusing to use the Epipens as they had been taught during their first aid at work course that first aiders should never issue medicines. It was agreed that this was wrong but it was also conceded that first aiders were volunteers and that they could not be forced to take on a role that they were uncomfortable with.
At this point you joined in and said that it was a legal requirement for first aiders to provide first aid and that a failure to do so could be construed as negligence.
The guidance from the HSE makes it clear that provision of first aid to non-employees is only a moral imperative not a legal requirement.
I pointed out that there is no legal requirement on either the employer or the first aider to provide any sort first aid to anybody other than employees.
First aiders are volunteers if responsibilities are placed on them that they regard as too onerous they will simply return their tabards and first aid kits and the employer will then be truly screwed.
The first rule of Health and Safety is that it is the art of the possible.
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