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First Aid - Employee Refusal To Go To Hospital

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Keith1983
Suitable and Sufficient since 1983
Suitable and Sufficient since 1983
Posts: 8330
Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 3:08 pm
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Industry Sector: Engineering/Manufacturing/ Construction
Occupation: H&S Coordinator
Location: Lincolnshire / South Yorkshire
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Re: First Aid - Employee Refusal To Go To Hospital

Post by Keith1983 »

I attended an incident as the first aider and an individual had sustained internal injuries. The paramedics turned up and myself and the manager as well as the paramedics expressed our opinion that the casualty should go to hospital. Initially the casualty did not want to as they felt 'ok'. We managed to convince them to go and they did. The internal injuries were found and emergency surgery was carried out to prevent them from bleeding to death.

We used the reasoning that they would get paid for the time to go and get checked out and anyone with any common sense would want to confirm nothing was wrong.

We started to get the documents together to document the individuals refusal to go to hospital and this seemed to convince them to go. I have no problem in saying that when I spoke about that document I spoke in a way which came across as if it was a bad thing to have to produce and sign. In doing this the casualty decided to get checked out. This decision saved their life.

Sometimes as an H&S professional or a first aider you have to get a little 'creative' in ways to help people see what should be obvious.

Whilst I had and still do have grave concerns over the safety of the employees of that ex employer of mine I am quite proud of the response to that particular incident and the effectiveness of the part I played in it.
So when the whole world is safe..............what are we going to do then?
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