UPDATE: FIRST AID CONFERENCE

Doctor Richard Elliot, Medical Adviser for the HSE announced the options for the changes to the First Aid at Work Regulations (1981) at the Manchester conference on 23rd October. These included downgrading the Appointed Person status to purely making a phone call for outside assistance in the event of an emergency. If risk assessment shows that first aid training of some sort is required then there would be a choice of two initial courses depending upon the nature of the workplace environment and the type of problems that may be encountered. There would be a compulsory 4-hour update the year after initial training followed by a re-qualification course in year 3. The full details of the length of these courses and their content was still to be confirmed. Further details posted on the First Aid Cafe website - see links.

Dr Elliot also made it quite clear that the HSE is NOT responsible for first aid training for children in schools, people in care and such activities as instructors working in the outdoors. The HSE remit is to ensure that Employers fulfil their statutory obligations to make first aid provision for their employees NOT the people that the employees work with or have a duty of care for. It is the responsibility of other government departments and agencies to come up with their own guidelines for first aid provision. The HSE were in dialogue with a number of departments and agencies to resolve this matter.

In reviewing the licensing and approval of organisations to deliver first aid, it was indicated that by April 2006 at the latest, the current system would cease to be used and a move towards an independent body yet to be identified or formed, would be needed to regulate the first aid training market for First Aid at Work. In an attempt to make training more flexible there would also need to be a move towards the approving of courses and trainers to deliver them as opposed to the approval of organisations. A subtle but distinct difference. However, at the present time there was little hope of getting all the different sectors of the first aid training industry to meet on common ground.

Posted on Sunday, Oct 24, 2004

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