Health & Safety – part 5 – First Aid at Work
Did you know it was World First Aid Day on 14th September?
Swiftclean has always taken the welfare of its employees seriously, particularly when it comes to safety on-site and in the office.
Happily, our accident statistics are well below the national average, and we work hard to keep it that way by training our staff to avoid taking unnecessary risks. Prevention is always better than cure. However, accidents do happen, and this is why we ensure that all our compliance supervisors undertake first-aid training alongside their other training courses.
We investigate the root cause of each and every accident that happens, with follow up actions which could include a toolbox talk to an individual or the wider team, for example on wearing the correct PPE, it could also include follow up one to one training with one of our regional compliance managers.
All our employees companywide complete a mandatory first aid eLearning course as part of our induction process. As well as our office-based first-aiders, our onsite field supervisors all have valid first-aid at work certificates that are renewed every 3 years, in line with regulations (the Health & Safety (first aid) regulations 1981).
We have easily accessible first aid kits situated in each of our company vans and also in our head office in Southend-on-Sea and our regional office in Leicester. These are kept stocked with the most appropriate materials for either office or on-site use. We also have eye wash stations situated at appropriate locations, which are routinely checked and restocked.
Our Integrated Systems Support Coordinator – Vinney Wall – recently attended a first aid course.
He describes how it will hopefully help him to help others in future.
“I recently attended the St John’s Ambulance First Aid at Work course to become Swiftclean’s second qualified first aider in the office. Before this, I only had minor knowledge of first aid from my younger days in the Scouts. The course was very informative, and interesting and helped me learn about what to do in situations including broken bones, heart attacks, CPR, and more”.
“There were a few things that I learned that I did not previously have any knowledge of such as AED (Defibrillators) that you can find in the street on a wall. These should be registered to www.thecircuit.uk so the emergency services know where each one is located. If you have an AED in or on your building that is not registered, you should register it as you could help save a life nearby. AED’s read your heartbeat and will only shock if they need to. You cannot shock a healthy heart, and the machine tells you verbally which steps you need to take, so you never have to worry about doing the wrong thing if you do not have prior knowledge. It will help the person in need, all you need to do is call 999 and they will guide you through it”.
