All Medical places of work need to be prepared should someone fall ill, or injure themselves.

Your Dental or Beauty Centre has a duty of care over anyone that visits, from staff to clients and other visitors. Because your Centre / Practice will have adults and children, and sometimes babies on site they need to meet not only HSE requirements for the Workplace, but you may also need Paediatric Skills, too. There is great overlap between the different types of courses and you need to find out which course suits your place of work the best.

As your Dental Practice / Clinic / Treatment Centre has employees then you must also comply with the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations. For instance you may need to:

• Provide adequate and appropriate first aid equipment and facilities
• Provide a suitable number of qualified first aiders
• Appoint a person to take charge where first aiders are temporarily absent or the provision of first aiders is not necessary (due to the nature of the activities; the number of employees; and location)
• Inform employees and volunteers of the first aid provisions made – including the location of any equipment or facilities and the identity of the first aider(s) or appointed person(s).

Generally speaking, to determine what is required in your Centre or Practice your Business must carry out a Risk Assessment and draw up an appropriate plan to provide this cover. There is some useful information on the Health and Safety Executive website:

https://www.hse.gov.uk/firstaid/

and the Care Quality Commission if you are Regulated by them:

https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance

(both open in new tabs)

Which course to choose?

The three main courses that you can choose for a typical Clinic or Practice are:

Basic Life Support, which is the minimum standard needed in a Workplace Environment. It won’t, however, allow the learner to be classed as a Workplace First Aider. That minimum is covered by the Emergency First Aid at Work qualification.

Emergency First Aid at Work, which covers the Workplace requirements, but doesn’t deal with looking after babies, nor does it cover medical events such as strokes (it does cover heart attacks).

Immediate Life Support which builds on Basic Life Support to provide more advanced First Aid skills such as the use of Oxygen, suction and airways. It also covers all ages, babies, children and adults as, especially with a Dental Practise this may be required.

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Building on from this – for larger Practices of those with more of a Paediatric element are:

First Aid at Work, which builds on Emergency First Aid at Work to include medical emergencies, bone and muscle injuries amongst other problems.

Emergency Paediatric First Aid which deals with children and infants (infant First Aid requirements are not usually needed for a Hospitality venue as they will be supervised by parents) but not workplace requirements. If you do consider this useful (say you have a play area), then some Training Providers can combine this course with one of the above.

Paediatric First Aid, which builds on the Emergency Paediatric First Aid course to include medical emergencies amongst other topics. This course is the one that meets Ofsted / EYFS requirements.

Mental Health First Aid. Working in Schools and Nurseries is demanding and issues can arise from time to time. Hours are long, and the work can be very intense. By providing Workplace Mental Health First Aiders they can provide support when required.

Advanced Life Support – this is for healthcare professionals who need skills in Advanced Life Support as part of their clinical duties, as well as those who teach these skills on a regular basis. This includes doctors, paramedics and nurses working in acute care areas (e.g. ED, CCU, ICU, HDU, operating theatres, acute medical admissions units) or on resuscitation/medical emergency/Critical Care Outreach teams. For medical Practitioners in the field, this is not a suitable course. It is just supplied for completeness.

Contact us if you believe that you need any of these courses.

When considering how many staff need training you must allow for not only staff and visitors, but staff leave and sickness – as well as the First Aider falling sick or injuring themselves. Also consider the size of the Clinic / Practice, whether it is spread out and consider spreading first aid skills across departments – Reception, consultation rooms etc.

Clinic and Dental Practice Workplace First Aid Kits

Are your First Aid kits up to date and complete? If not, look at our Health Workplace First Aid kits for sale.