What goes in a workplace first aid kit

The duty

Why there is a kit at all

Under the Work Health and Safety Act, the model Code explains, the primary duty sits with the PCBU, the person conducting a business or undertaking. In general terms, that duty is to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that workers and other people are not exposed to health and safety risks arising from the business.

Safe Work Australia’s page on first aid duties puts the practical result in two sentences:

“All workplaces, including workplaces in the construction industry, must have access to first aid.”

“You must ensure your workers must be able to access first aid equipment and facilities at all times.”

Safe Work Australia, first aid duties (construction duties information)

Victoria works under a different Act. Its compliance code gives practical guidance under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and its regulations, and it says that failing to observe the code may be used as evidence in proceedings for an offence under that Act or those regulations.

Number and place

How many kits, and where they go

Safe Work Australia’s page sets the minimum and the placement in one list:

“Your workplace must have at least one first aid kit. It should be:

• in a location where all workers can see and access it quickly.
• where there is a higher risk of injury or illness.
• inside work vehicles if workers travel for their job.”

Safe Work Australia, first aid duties (construction duties information)

The state codes say much the same in their own words. Tasmania’s adopted code asks for kits in a prominent, accessible place where they can be fetched quickly, and says all workers must have access to first aid equipment, in security-controlled workplaces too. Victoria’s compliance code says kits need to be clearly identifiable and easy to get to, and that employers must give employees enough instruction to find a kit when it is needed.

“At least one” is a minimum. Safe Work Australia says a risk assessment will help a workplace work out its first aid needs, such as equipment, facilities and training, that workers should be consulted on it, and that it should be reviewed regularly. The model Code includes a sample risk assessment to start from.

Marking

How a kit is marked

The model Code says first aid kits can be any size, shape or type to suit the workplace, but that each kit should be recognisable at once, carrying “a white cross on green background” in a prominent place on its outside. Tasmania’s adopted code uses the same words.

That marking is described on these sheets in the code’s own words and is not drawn: the case on the plates carries a blank panel where it would sit. The rest of the code’s section on the design of kits is in the model Code itself, linked at the foot of this page.

Contents

The example list, and what stays out of it

Appendix E of the model Code is headed “Example of contents for first aid kits”. It is headed as an example, and the code expects a kit to suit its workplace. Read it in the code itself; this sheet does not reproduce it.

Two things the appendix says about medicines are worth knowing before anyone stocks a kit.

Pain relief medicines

The model Code says medication, including analgesics such as paracetamol and aspirin, should not be included in first aid kits. It gives two reasons: these medicines can cause adverse health effects in some people, among them pregnant women and people with conditions such as asthma; and their supply may be controlled by drugs and poisons laws. Tasmania’s adopted code says the same.

Asthma and severe allergy

The same appendix says a workplace may consider including an asthma-relieving inhaler and a spacer, and an epinephrine auto-injector, stored according to the manufacturers’ instructions, with first aiders given appropriate training. The NSW code carries the same paragraph. The code frames these as things a workplace may consider, not as items every kit must hold.

Other equipment

The rest of the first aid set-up

A kit is one part of what the codes call first aid equipment and facilities. The model Code says a telephone that can reach emergency services, or an emergency call system, should be part of a workplace’s first aid facilities.

Some workplaces also need a first aid room. Safe Work Australia’s page says:

“A risk assessment will help decide if a first aid room is needed. A high-risk workplace like a construction site, there should be a first aid room if there are 100 or more workers.”

Safe Work Australia, first aid duties (construction duties information)

In South Australia, SafeWork SA recommends a first aid room for high-risk workplaces of more than 100 workers and for low-risk workplaces of more than 200 workers.

Where hazardous chemicals are handled, used or stored, the model Code tells a workplace to check the safety data sheet (SDS) for each one, because that sheet sets out the chemical’s possible health effects and its first aid requirements.

Two of the codes also ask an employer to think about a defibrillator. Victoria’s compliance code asks whether one is reasonably practicable, and Tasmania’s adopted code lists the situations in which to consider one. Both are set out on the sheet for defibrillators in public places, and keeping a kit stocked and checked is on the sheet for keeping a kit in order.