What’s in your first aid room?
Legislation – Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981
Employers should provide a suitable first aid room or rooms where the assessment of first aid needs identifies this as necessary. The first aid room(s) should contain essential first-aid facilities and equipment, be easily accessible to stretchers and be clearly signposted and identified. If possible, the room(s) should be reserved exclusively for giving first aid.
First aid rooms should:
- Be large enough to hold an examination/medical couch, with enough space at each side for people to work, a chair and any necessary additional equipment
- Have washable surfaces and adequate heating, ventilation and lighting
- Be kept clean, tidy, accessible and available for use at all times when employees are at work
- Be positioned as near as possible to a point of access for transport to hospital
- Display a notice on the door advising of the names, locations and, if appropriate, telephone extensions of first aiders and how to contact them.
Here is a typical example of the equipment and facilities a first aid room may contain:
- A sink with hot and cold running water
- Drinking water with disposable cups
- Soap and paper towels
- A store for first-aid materials
- Foot-operated refuse containers lined with disposable, yellow clinical waste
- An examination/medical couch with waterproof protection and clean pillows and blankets
- A chair
- A telephone or other communication equipment
- A accident record book