Life Support Training

Question:

Do we have a legal obligation to provide yearly training in basic life support for our staff?

Answer:

Great question! we do it anyway to cover outself and ensure that we meet basic requirement. I have never thought of the legal obligation except that staff has a legal obligation to have current certification and competence.

Answer:

Yes you do have a legal obligation

Answer:

I believe it is seen as best practice to provide the training. Therefore in Scotland it is a legal obligation but I believe it is still highly recommended in England.

Answer:

Yes, I believe that you do, even though it is on the 5 year cycle for GDC registrants.

Answer:

I’m not sure if it has a ‘legal’ tag attached but certainly the GDC and the CQC would say yes, and medical emergencies have been a core part of the annual CPD requirement since DCP registration came into being. This is something our practice has done for years and we consider it compulsory that every member of staff attends for the 2 hour session; no one is allowed holiday on that day.

I suppose staff could find their own course to attend individually but the monitoring of this, to ensure that everyone has attended at least once a year, will be quite onerous. All the practices I know locally, provide this for their staff, free of charge.

It costs the practice about £350 per year, and think that it is well worth it, as we are all fulfilling our professional responsibilities to our patients and staff alike. Hope this helps.

Answer:

We are about to do first aid training this year and it is validated for 3 yrs; this will be the first time we have done first aid and we will all do it. But legally you only have to nominate one or two named members of the team.

We do Defib and CPR every year as a separate course.

May 2012