First Aid Regulations are Changing in BC: What Employers Need to Know
This is a brief summary of the most important changes that will immediately affect workplaces on November 1st, 2024
Table of Contents
Introduction
WorkSafeBC is implementing changes to workplace first aid regulations on November 1st, 2024. These changes could have a significant impact on your workplace requirements, including how many first aid attendants are required, what level of certification they are required to hold, and what first aid kits and supplies are required.
We will do a deep dive into the regulation changes below, including all the information you need to meet the new requirements. But first, here’s a summary of the changes that might affect your workplace right away.
- All employers are required to do a written first aid assessment for each job site
- All employers are required to hold annual first aid drills to ensure that staff are aware of emergency response procedures and know where all necessary equipment and information can be found
- They have clearly defined “less accessible workplaces”, and have increased the level of first aid needed for these sites. Because of this change:
- Many more workplaces will now need first aid attendants with Transportation Endorsement certificates
- Some workplaces within 20 minutes to an ambulance station will now need Advanced First Aid (formerly Level 3) attendants, as opposed to just OFA Level 2 attendants.
- First aid kit requirements, and kit contents, have changed so you may need to purchase new kits or update your old kits with new equipment.
- First Aid Certification names have changed to align with CSA Standards
- OFA Level 1 is now called Basic First Aid
- OFA Level 2 is now called Intermediate First Aid
- OFA Level 3 is now called Advanced First Aid
- Intermediate First Aid is now only a 2-day course. This is significant because it replaces OFA Level 2 which was a 5-day course.
- The length of Basic First Aid (1-day course) and Advanced First Aid (2 week course) has not changed.
To help you determine the changes in minimum levels of first aid required on your worksite, we’ve developed the calculator below. It will outline the minimum requirements both before, and after, these regulatory changes take place.
Minimum First Aid Requirement Calculator
This is the maximum number of employees that will be working together on one jobsite.
This is the amount of time it would take a vehicle to travel from an Ambulance base to your jobsite under regular traffic patterns. You can use an online mapping tool to estimate this travel time during regular working hours.
Your jobsite will be classified as less-accessible if any of the following conditions apply:
- Backcountry spots only accessible by ATVs, snowmobiles, or similar vehicles.
- Areas where access involves steep or slippery slopes or embankments without proper walkways.
- Rough or complex terrain.
- Areas with significant risks like avalanches, landslides, floods, or other natural hazards.
Your jobsite will also be classified as less-accessible if any of the following conditions apply and there are no specific alternative provisions in place to safely rescue workers from the hazardous areas:
- Confined spaces or areas with a risk of being trapped.
- Underground work sites.
- Excavation zones.
- Areas that can only be reached using ladders, scaffolding, or temporary platforms.
- High-angle work areas or places with a risk of falling.
- Jobs on or over water.
- Spaces that require special protective equipment or where there might be hazardous air conditions.
- Other Hazardous Areas not accessible by BCEHS Paramedics.
Why the changes?
Requirements for workplace safety fall under provincial jurisdiction. And historically, workplace first aid requirements in BC, as prescribed in the WorkSafeBC Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, have been much stricter than other provinces. This led to ongoing complaints from employers and workers who were working in multiple provinces and constantly had to upgrade the training of staff that came into BC to work. So essentially, it was a worker mobility issue.
So, provincial regulators approached the Canadian Standards Association to consult with industry in all provinces and come up with a National standard for workplace first aid requirements. After months of consultation the CSA published two new CSA standards. CSA Z1210-17 which set the national standard for First Aid Training in the Workplace, and CSA Z1220-17 which set the national standard for first aid kits in the workplace.
Once these standards were published, WorkSafeBC immediately changed their requirements to match! Well, ok, not immediately. It took 7 years. But hey, for a government agency that’s pretty quick!
So the changes being implemented in November are meant to align the first aid training and kits to match CSA Z1210-17 and CSA Z1220-17.
What changes will immediate affect my business?
As mentioned above, there are many significant changes to the requirements of BC companies regarding first aid attendants and equipment that take effect on November 1st, 2024. Let’s look more closely at the requirements that immediately affect whether or not business is compliant with the new regulations, including the need for a new Written First Aid Assessment, annual First Aid Drills, new First Aid Kit requirements, new requirements for “less accessible workplaces”, and a new definition of “remote workplaces”.
Mandatory Written First Aid Assessment
In order to determine if your workplace meets the new regulations, all employers are required to conduct a written first aid assessment. These assessments must be completed by October 31st, 2024, so if you haven’t done one already it’s time to get started!
Workers must be consulted as part of this written assessment to ensure that all of the actual first aid needs of each worksite are met.
There is an easy tool to help you complete your Written First Aid Assessment. Please click here to download the Written First Aid Assessment tool which will walk you through every step of the process and leave you with a .pdf version of a Written First Aid Assessment.
Annual First Aid Drills
Employers are now required to hold annual first aid drills. Annual first aid drills in the workplace serve an important purpose. They give employers and workers a chance to test how well their first aid procedures work in practice. These drills allow everyone involved to practice their roles and responsibilities, making sure that they can respond effectively if a real emergency happens. Additionally, drills help identify any challenges or gaps in the written first aid procedures, allowing employers to address these issues before an actual incident occurs. Below is a summary of the new requirements:
- Frequency of Drills:
- Employers must conduct at least one first aid drill each year.
- Drills must also be conducted whenever there are significant changes to first aid procedures.
- Purpose of Drills:
- To ensure that first aid procedures are effective.
- To confirm that workers, first aid attendants, and other involved individuals understand their roles and responsibilities.
- To test the ability of the first aid attendants to access equipment, provide first aid, and manage the transportation of injured workers.
- Key Areas to Assess During Drills:
- Accessibility of equipment: Whether first aid attendants can quickly access supplies and facilities.
- Workers’ familiarity: Understanding how to call for first aid and where first aid equipment is located.
- Response efficiency: The effectiveness of summoning first aid attendants and their response to both minor and serious injuries.
- Movement of injured workers: How well injured workers can be accessed, prepared (packaged), and moved, especially if transport to an area accessible by emergency services is needed.
- Documentation: First aid attendants’ familiarity with the required documentation and reporting after an incident.
- Drill Scenarios:
- Drills should include mock scenarios to evaluate the procedures mentioned above.
- Any additional procedures exceeding the minimum requirements must also be included in these drills.
- Post-Drill Process:
- Results from the drill should be reviewed and shared with all first aid attendants.
- Feedback should also be provided to the joint health and safety committee or worker health and safety representative, where applicable.
- Safety During Drills:
- Drills should be designed to minimize hazards to participants.
- Dummies may be used to simulate injured workers when testing transportation procedures.
- If a drill poses a risk, a table-top exercise may be used as an alternative to evaluate the procedures.
- Triggers for Additional Drills:
- Drills must be conducted following any substantive changes in procedures, such as:
- Changes in transportation methods (e.g., using a different type of emergency vehicle).
- Changes in the method for summoning first aid attendants (e.g., switching communication devices).
- A change in workplace class (e.g., from a remote to a less-accessible classification).
- Changes to the level of first aid certification required or rescue procedures.
- Drills must be conducted following any substantive changes in procedures, such as:
- Drill Considerations Based on Workplace Characteristics:
- For fixed locations (single or multi-employer), drills should be conducted annually at each location.
- For temporary locations, an annual drill at one location may suffice if procedures remain consistent. If procedures vary significantly, multiple drills may be required.
These guidelines ensure that first aid drills are comprehensive and that all involved parties are prepared for emergencies. Drills provide a practical way to test and refine the effectiveness of first aid procedures, helping to ensure that the workplace remains prepared for any incidents requiring first aid.
Less Accessible Workplaces
The old schedule 3-A of the Occupational Health & Safety Regulation, which is in effect until November 1st, did mention that there would be extra first aid requirements for sites that may be hard to access by paramedics. However, the new Regulation greatly expands on the definition of a Less-accessible workplace and spells out specific minimum requirements for workplaces that meet that definition.
Our Written First Aid Assessment tool lays out a simple checklist to determine if your workplace would fit the definition of Less-Accessible. But here we’d like ot go into a little more detail as to what might be considered a Less-Accessible workplace.
Less-accessible workplaces, as defined in Schedule 3-A, are areas where ambulance personnel can’t safely reach injured workers. These include places that are tough to access by land and areas where getting to an injured worker could be risky for ambulance attendants.
Examples of Less-Accessible Areas: BCEHS (British Columbia Emergency Health Services) generally won’t reach into the following locations:
- Backcountry spots only accessible by ATVs, snowmobiles, or similar vehicles.
- Areas where access involves steep or slippery slopes or embankments without proper walkways.
- Rough or complex terrain.
- Areas with significant risks like avalanches, landslides, floods, or other natural hazards.
If your workers are reasonably expected to be in places like these, it’s a good idea to treat the site as less-accessible when determining what first aid provisions you’ll need.
Hazardous Work Areas: BCEHS will also not conduct rescues in certain hazardous work locations, such as:
- Confined spaces or areas with a risk of being trapped.
- Underground work sites.
- Excavation zones.
- Areas that can only be reached using ladders, scaffolding, or temporary platforms.
- High-angle work areas or places with a risk of falling.
- Jobs on or over water.
- Spaces that require special protective equipment or where there might be hazardous air conditions.
Workplaces where employees work in these types of hazardous areas should also be considered less-accessible, unless:
- The workplace isn’t remote or otherwise less accessible, AND
- The employer has put alternative plans in place to safely rescue workers, following the requirements of section 4.13 of the Regulation.
What Does “Safely Rescue” Mean?
For this section, “safely rescue” means:
- Moving the injured worker from the hazardous spot to a location where BCEHS can reach them—without causing more harm or making existing injuries worse. Usually, this involves safely packaging and transporting the worker, like what’s taught in transportation endorsement courses (unless that’s not practical, such as lowering a bucket truck to the ground or using a harness in confined spaces).
- If possible, while making sure the first aid attendant isn’t at undue risk or delaying the rescue, first aid should be provided right away and throughout the rescue process. The aid given should be enough to address any likely injuries from the less-accessible area.
Finally, if your workplace is on roads that an ambulance can’t reach, it should be considered both less-accessible and remote.
Remote Workplaces
Remote workplaces in BC have stricter first aid requirements than those that are closer to a hospital or ambulance service. This is because injured workers may need life-saving care for much longer before paramedics arrive. Or, there may be a need to transport injured workers to the hospital in a company emergency transport vehicle if paramedics are too far away.
Under the current Schedule 3-A which outlines the requirements for first aid certifications and supplies on a worksite, workplace requirements differ based on the amount of time it would take for an Ambulance to get to the worksite from the nearest hospital. Workplaces were put into two categories, those that were 20 minutes or less from a hospital, and those that were more than 20 minutes from a hospital. It was generally accepted that workplaces would make this calculation based on the ambulance traveling on the streets through traffic with lights and sirens.
Under the new Schedule 3-A taking effect on November 1st, 2024 workplaces are still split into two categories, now called “Remote” or “Not Remote”.
“Remote” workplaces are defined under Schedule 3-A to be those workplaces which, under normal travel conditions, an ambulance that is a motor vehicle cannot travel from its base to the worksite in 30 minutes or less, but does not include a ferry. “Normal travel conditions” should be determined by the average time it takes to drive to (or from) the nearest ambulance station by a motor vehicle following the rules of the road, during the normal working hours of the employer’s workplace.
Therefore, you now have to consider regular traffic conditions when determining whether or not your workplace is remote. The simplest way to do this is to do a quick search on google maps to find the closest BCEHS Ambulance station, then click ‘directions’ to your worksite to see how long google maps says it would take to drive that distance. If it would take more than 30 minutes due to traffic congestion, your workplace will now be considered remote.
Conclusion
In summary, the changes to workplace first aid regulations taking effect on November 1st, 2024 could bring significant updates to your workplace’s first aid requirements. These include adjustments to the number and certification level of first aid attendants needed, updates to first aid kits, and the introduction of written assessments and annual drills. The new regulations also redefine what constitutes a “less accessible workplace” and increase the first aid provisions for these sites. Employers may need to adapt by obtaining new certifications for their attendants, upgrading first aid kits, and ensuring that staff are well-prepared through regular drills to meet these new standards. Hopefully the tools above, including the Minimum First Aid Requirement Calculator, and the Written First Aid Assessment Form, will help you meet the new requirements.
And of course, if you need any additional training or first aid supplies, Fundamental First Aid is the leading first aid training and equipment provider in Vancouver and we would love to be your first choice for all your First Aid needs.
AT FUNDAMENTAL FIRST AID, YOU'RE IN GOOD COMPANY
Basic
First Aid
(OFA Level 1)
WorkSafeBC Basic First Aid is an Occupational First Aid course for the base level first aid attendant. If your workplace has a small staff and a low risk of injury, this course is for you!
8 hours in-class
$105 + GST
Intermediate
First Aid
(OFA Level 2)
WorkSafeBC Intermediate First Aid takes the urban first aid attendant to the next level. If your workplace is near a hospital, but has more than 50 employees or has a moderate risk of injury, this course is for you!
2 days in-class
$225 + GST
Advanced
First Aid
(OFA Level 3)
WorkSafeBC Advanced First Aid is the highest level of First Aid Attendant in BC. If your workplace is more than 30 minutes from an ambulance and has a large staff OR has a moderate to high risk of injury, this course is for you!
2 weeks in-class
$900 + GST
Transportation Endorsement
This course is for a basic or intermediate attendant who may be working remotely or has a less accessible worksite. If you have a basic or intermediate first aid certificate and would like to learn how to secure a patient to a spine board for transportation to a hospital, this course is for you!
8 hours in-class
$135 + GST
FUNDAMENTAL FIRST AID COURSES – VANCOUVER
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6A 4K4
604-841-2541
info@fundamentalfirstaid.ca