First Aid Supplies and First Aid Kits
First Aid Kits and First Aid Supplies. An annoying expense or a potential lifesaver?
Picture this, despite all your safety precautions, one of your workers, Ryan, badly lacerates his arm in the workshop, and there’s blood everywhere. His supervisor dashes to the first aid box for something to stem the bleeding, but finds only a few bandaids - certainly nothing to cope with this kind of injury. Thinking fast, he grabs a rag off the workbench. It’s pretty grubby, but it’s there, at least, and he slaps it on the wound while someone else calls an ambulance.
Ryan spends a few hours in casualty getting patched up, expecting to be back at work the next day. But overnight, an infection sets in, very likely as a result of using a dirty rag to stop the bleeding, instead of the sterile pressure pad that should have been in the first aid kit. His doctor signs him off for a week to recover.
Work Insurance Cover would pay Ryan’s medical expenses, his wages during his time off sick, and any rehabilitation costs that he might need. Now, Work Insurance Cover premiums are calculated taking into account a business’s claim history, so this claim could impact your premium, and you could end up paying more for WorkCover for the next 3 years. Other costs would include lost productivity, during Ryan’s absence, and recovery period, during which he may have to be assigned to lighter duties.
It’s a sad scenario, and there are thousands of variations on the same theme. From lacerations to burns to eye injuries, if the right first aid equipment isn’t available, a minor injury can turn into something much more serious.
The fact is that employers owe their employees a duty of care, and the first aid kit in your workplace is the first port of call for an injured worker. Availability of good first aid products can make the difference between a minor incident and a major drama
