First Aid Requirements in British Columbia
Please Note: While the assessment steps shown below work in many businesses, it will not work for ALL businesses. Each business is unique, and the steps below have been simplified to remove some of the less likely complications that can drastically change the results of your assessment. If you need help to conduct a full First Aid Assessment, you can call our offices at 778-471-6407 (Kamloops) or Lower Mainland (778-957-6407) or email us at: info@ohandscanada.ca to schedule a First Aid Assessment for your business.
Employers are responsible for conducting a First Aid Assessment in BC. The full guidelines are available on the WorkSafeBC website, at OHS Regulations G3.16. This assessment includes multiple different scenarios that most businesses do not need all of the information provided in the full guidelines above, and outlined below is the information that will satisfy many businesses. WorkSafeBC has provided a First Aid Assessment Worksheet in order to track all of the information in the assessment.
1. Industry Hazard Assessment Rating
This hazard assessment rating is done using your main business undertaking.
The first thing necessary is the Industry Code, which will obtain the Hazard Assessment Rating for your Industry. WorkSafeBC has a tool that will find your Classification Industry Rate. Using either the Search feature, or choosing from the list below that, you can obtain a PDF for your industry. This PDF contains several useful details including descriptions of what businesses that would be categorized within this Classification Unit (CU), as well as typical employees within this Classification Unit. For the purposes of this assessment, we are looking for the Hazard Rating Assignment as shown in the sample below.
Once the Hazard Rating Assignment has been obtained, record it in your First Aid Assessment Worksheet.
2. Surface Distance from Hospital
Next, you need to determine whether or not your business is located 20 minutes or more of travel time (by road or water) from a hospital during working hours. Note: This includes having consideration for weather, road conditions, traffic patterns, and other factors that may affect travel and are likely to prevail during working hours. Also, check that the hospital or treatment facility:
- Has an emergency department or resuscitation area
- Has a physician on duty or immediately available on call
- Is open during your working hours
Once it has been determined whether the travel time is 20 minutes or more or less than 20 minutes, record it in your First Aid Assessment Worksheet.
3. Maximum Number of Workers on the Workplace
This count includes all supervisors and management as well.
Once it has been determined, record it in your First Aid Assessment Worksheet.
4. Determine Minimum Level of First Aid
The OHS Regulations Schedule 3-A Minimum Levels of First Aid has six (6) tables (labeled from Table 1 through Table 6) which list the minimum requirements for first aid. Using the information from steps 1 and 2 above, you can determine which table to use when applying the Number of Workers from step 3 above.
Distance from Hospital
Low Risk
Moderate Risk
High Risk
less than 20 minutes
Table 2
Table 4
Table 6
20 minutes or more
Table 1
Table 3
Table 5
Once the correct table has been determine, use the Maximum Number of Workers to determine your minimum requirements and record it in your First Aid Assessment Worksheet.