Tool Box
Issue No. 50 - December/ /
New first aid code alert
by Alice Staniford
From 10 December 2009, the 12-month transition period for the new Approved First Aid Code of Practice begins, with full commencement effective from 10 December 2010. Though the current First Aid Code will still be in effect, workplaces are to begin the process of changing over to the new Code.
What does this mean to workplaces? As there are not a lot of changes made, the current code is nearly 20 years old and huge steps in OHS have been made since its inception which have made the Code antiquated.
“First aid kits are actually used quite often,” says Caroline Neil of National Risk Solutions. “In the general office settings, it’s usually Band-Aids for cuts and scrapes, to the more elaborate uses for major injuries in some of your more industrial settings.
“The degree of usage is really difficult to measure as the need so often fluctuates. The new Code aims to take away the double standards of the old one and allow workplace activities to determine the first aid requirements, not necessarily prescribing what is required based on the size of the workplace.”
Caroline highlights some of the changes:
Prescribed v. Risk Assessment
In the previous code, while risk assessment was used in determining what the requirements were for first aid in a particular workplace, the Code also stipulated certain prescriptive action that were required as well. Under the new Code, a risk assessment will be used and the prescriptive actions have been removed. This means the requirements for first aid will be based on the
risk assessments at the workplace, a process that is
more uniform and aligned with the other states
along with being more adequate and necessary to the individual workplace.
“Most SMEs will only have to make some minor changes, mostly to the number of bandages required in the kits and the removal of some items such as eye patches and eye wash where it is not required due to the nat...
