Is your workplace first aid ready?

St John Ambulance Australia is also urging business leaders to participate in the National Safe Work Month this October and ensure their procedures and employees are up to date with their first aid skills.

“Managers need to be aware of their responsibilities when it comes to the safety of their employees, contractors and other people in the workplace,” said St John Ambulance Queensland CEO Alex Hutton.

“Workplace safety undoubtedly becomes a larger issue as a company grows and it is necessary and essential for managers to assess their operations regularly.”

While there have been efforts to increase safety in the workplace, not all companies are up to date on first aid training skills if an incident does occur.

“It’s disturbing and quite scary, knowing 85% of the Australian workforce has a knowledge gap this serious,” Hutton said.

“Many organisations focus on increasing their efficiency but to do that completely they need to look at more than just their bottom line, they also need to maintain workplace safety so their staff is ready for the unexpected, risks are minimised and people have a safe workplace.”

Hutton said that an estimated 117 Australian workers have been killed at work this year, and each one of these deaths could have been prevented if the right training and first aid skills were readily available during that person’s work activity.

“There’s nothing worse than knowing you could have done something to help if you knew what to do,” he said.

Image credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Yong Hian Lim