First Aid means immediate assistance and care to an injured or ill person, which could be given by anybody without an educational medical background, while waiting for regular medical intervention 


 It is important to organize at all sites an emergency chain to provide First Aid and professional medical care as soon as possible

 Every site must ensure that efficient First Aid is provided in less than 5, better 3 minutes after the incident

A medical emergency plan must be defined onsite (including Site-specific hazards if any).  Appropriate emergency response must rehearsed by drills on a regular base depending on the size and the hazards of the Site

 

Minimum requirements

The Site is responsible to ensure an adequate first-aid and medical emergency response on time :

 The Site ensures there is a clear procedure for contacting emergency medical service

 The Site assesses the needs on first-aid responders according to the onsite specific situations (risks, emergency medical service response time,..) and ensures their
         continuous training

 The Site performs drills including scenarios with injured persons

 The first-aid responders are trained on the Site-specific risks

 Specific antidotes are available when necessary

 The Site informs emergency medical providers (e.g. local hospital) on the Site’s hazards requiring specific medical
         measures (e.g. acute intoxications)

More details on Syensqo recommendations on first-aid and medical emergency response are available in the guideline 
IND-HSE-OH-13.01-GUI.

 

Training

If necessary the Site should organize trainings for First Aiders with the support of the occupational health (OH) team

"Best in class" means the Site is able to organize special trainings encouraging every employee to give basic life support  
         First-aid recommendations in case of heart attack (heart failure) : video from the American Heart Association on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)


Site-specific risks

 - If the risk assessment onsite identifies hazards requiring special medical attention and treatment, it has to be communicated 

        - The OH team should be involved these risk assessments and in the definition of the appropriate treatment of specific medical hazards       (e.g. HF, Phenol, burns, chlorine, etc.)



 - Advanced first aid responders trained for treatment of specific hazards - are necessary, and a special training must also be organized with the support of the OH team.  

        - In this framework the OH team must also provide risk-related information and trainings to external medical staffs, like ambulances and nearby hospitals, and 
           provide them with special antidotes if necessary

 To support the OH teams on Site, the global coordinating health team has developed special guidelines that can be useful for these trainings:
         - First aid and medical recommendations in case of acute exposure to chlorine (IND-HSE-OH-10.02-GUI)
         - First aid and medical recommendations in case of acute exposure to phenol (IND-HSE-OH-10.03-GUI)
         - First aid and medical recommendations in case of acute exposure to fluorine, HF and other fluorides (IND-HSE-OH-10.06-GUI)
         - First aid and medical recommendations in case of burns (IND-HSE-OH-10.08-GUI)
         - First aid and medical recommendations in case of exposure to heat or severe clime conditions (IND-HSE-OH-10.10-GUI)


First-aid kits

The Site is responsible for providing appropriate and/or risk-related First Aid kits.  These First Aid kits must be checked regularly and re-filled if necessary.


   The Medical coordinator of your region
 OH homepage