One of our Managers has been contacted by a first aid provider kit supplier and said:-

I thought you may be interested to know that the British Standard for workplace first aid kits was updated in January 2019.

In light of this review, we've updated our range of first aid kits to meet the new standard BS 8599-1:2019

 I don’t have access to British standard unless I buy it as a non-member for £106. Does anyone know if there are any changes to recommendations of what we should have in our kits? It’s a bit hard to tell if this is a marketing ploy to have even more kits in their range or if there is a genuine recommendation for items to be in the kits that previously were not. Obviously, what is in everyone’s kits will vary depending on type of work, but is there a basic change?

Chris

It's nothing to do with standard first aid kits its personal first aid kits and major injury kits for vehicles.  We have though just introduced a new element in our first aid training (provided by the MoJ) to including catastrophic bleeding which is think is what this is all about.

http://bhta.com/new-bs-8599-12019-workplace-first-aid-kits-update/

http://www.stjohnsupplies.co.uk/news/default.asp?id=1972

There are few changes to standard kits - I've found some more detail - safety pins are no longer included, tape is substituted for safety pins, the number of medium dressings has been reduced and large dressings has increased.  However, this is still risk based and there is no requirement to change your first aid kits.  Old style kits can be sold for up to 12 months from the inception of the new standard.  If you want to be ahead of the game then order some extra large dressing packs and some tape rolls to put in your current kits and take out the safety pins but there is no need to do anything more.

Edited by user 17 April 2019 11:41:46(UTC)  | Reason: I found more detailed information

Sales Pitch

http://www.hse.gov.uk/firstaid/faqs.htm

Employers may wish to refer to British Standard BS 8599 which provides further information on the contents of workplace first-aid kits.

Whether using a first-aid kit complying with BS 8599 or an alternative kit, the contents should reflect the outcome of the first-aid needs assessment.​​​​​​​

Originally Posted by: chris42

Thank you all for your input very informative and quick too. I was just wondering if it was recommending something above and beyond what we have assessed ourselves.

Cheers

Chris

To be honest Chris it was a knee-jerk panic response because we have just replaced all our first aid kits and I hadn't spotted anything about the change in the standard, so initially it was a real heart sink moment as I thought I had done the wrong thing!!!!

As part of the MoJ our first aid courses are provided centrally by a team from the Prison Service, they are really on the ball with any changes and our new course now includes AED and Control of Catastrophic Bleeding.  So I suppose I did have a bit of a head start because he had asked me to order in some spare large dressings.  Now all I need to do is decide if we need to change (or should change on ethical grounds) the first aid kits in our fleet of 23 LGVs.