When it comes to First Aid in the workplace, every employer has to provide some level of prevention and support, and these requirements increase depending on the size of the workforce.

Supports include kits containing basic first aid items as well as at least one employee on each shift who holds a valid St. John Ambulance Emergency First Aid Certificate or its equivalent and who works in the immediate vicinity of the station. Each first aid station must be easily accessible by workers.

Employers must ensure that  first aid boxes and their contents are inspected and replenished at least quarterly and have to update the inspection card for each box with the date of the most recent inspection and the signature of the person making the inspection.

Workplaces with less than five workers require a first aid station with a first aid box containing as a minimum, a current edition of a standard St. John Ambulance First Aid Manual, and a kit containing safety pins, adhesive dressings individually wrapped, field dressings, sterile gauze pads, rolls of gauze bandage, bandage compresses, and a triangular bandage.

Workplaces employing more than five workers and not more than fifteen workers require a first aid station with a first aid box containing double the number of dressings and bandages listed above, as well as an inspection card with spaces for recording the date of the most recent inspection of the first aid box and the signature of the person making the inspection.

Every workplace with more than fifteen and fewer than 200 workers is required to provide and maintain a first aid station which contains a notice board displaying the WSIB poster known as Form 82 (in addition to the H&S notice board),  the valid First Aid Certificates of Qualification and photo of the trained workers on duty, an inspection card, the first aid box as well as one stretcher, two blankets and a basin (the small, kidney-shaped ones).

A company that employs more than 200 employees, in addition to all of the above items, must have furnishings consisting of hot and cold running water, 3 stainless steel washbasins, a instrument sterilizer, a cabinet for surgical dressings, enamel foot bath, sanitary disposal receptacle with lid, a couch curtained off or in a separate cubicle, a stretcher, and two blankets.

Call us today to ensure your first aid requirements are up to date!