37% of chefs don’t know where First Aid Kit is kept in kitchen, finds survey

25th January 2012, 3:40pm

According to a recent survey by DayMark UK, 37% of chefs and kitchen workers don’t know where the First Aid Kit is kept at work.

When they do need to use the First Aid Kit – and 15.5% or chefs are reporting that they cut or burn themselves at least once a week – the chances are that the items they need are missing. 

Almost 60% (59%) report that they found First Aid Kit contents missing occasionally and 12% report that they found contents missing 'all the time.'   Further to this only 21% of chefs find First Aid Kit contents easy to find in the Kit itself.

The research also highlights that chefs and kitchen workers fret about accidents in the kitchen at work – 21% report that they worry about hurting themselves at work and a further 46% report that they sometimes worry about it.  When asked if they would know what to do if someone got hurt, some 77% report that they wouldn't know or were unsure.

When it comes to more serious accidents at work, 15% report that they have experienced a serious injury that required further attention.   Of those most are cuts requiring stitches and burns requiring hospital attention.  Of the burns, five of six were fat fryer related.   Eight of twelve more serious incidents reported required hospital attention.  Four incidents were knife related and three required stitches. 

Greg Fitchett, sales director for DayMark UK, said: "We undertook this research because we wanted to find what chefs and kitchen workers think about first aid provision at work, how often incidents are occurring and what type of incident is most common. This will help us work with operators to advise them on first aid provision and the contents required in the kitchen First Aid Kit.  

"What's surprising is the patchy knowledge of the whereabouts of the First Aid Kit and who is responsible for maintaining it. It's essential for managers to ensure that all kitchen workers know where the Kit is and that its contents are always up to date.  We can see that people are worried about hurting themselves at work and that it is happening frequently, so it's vital that the First Aid Kit resources are there, ready for use whenever an incident occurs."

Related Articles:

• 27 Sep 2010 - DayMark partners with The Safer Food System

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