How I Set Up the First Aid Kit Check Template with Customers in Pilla
First aid kits sit on walls and in cupboards until someone needs them. When that moment comes, a cut, a burn, an eye injury, the kit needs to be complete and ready. I've walked into sites where the kit was mounted in the right place, the green sign was on the wall, and the container looked fine from the outside. Open it up and the plasters were gone, the dressings had expired eight months ago, and someone had taken the gloves for cleaning.
The problem is rarely that businesses don't have first aid kits. It's that nobody checks them. Items get used for minor injuries and are not replaced. Sterile supplies quietly expire. Kits get moved during a refit and nobody updates the signage. A monthly check takes five minutes and catches all of it. This article covers what to look for, how to set the check up as a recurring work activity in Pilla, and the specific mistakes I see most often.
Key Takeaways
- What is a first aid kit check? A monthly inspection of each first aid kit in your workplace, verifying that all required items are present, quantities are adequate, nothing has expired, and the kit is accessible and properly signed
- Why do you need to check first aid kits? The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require adequate and appropriate first aid equipment. Items get used and not replaced, sterile supplies expire, and kits get moved or buried behind stock. Monthly checks catch all of this before someone needs the kit and finds it empty
- How do you set it up in Pilla? Use the work template below, set it as a recurring monthly activity, and assign it to the person responsible for first aid at your premises
- How do you automate the follow-up? Set up Poppi to chase anyone who hasn't completed their check and flag overdue inspections to managers
Article Content
Understanding What's Required of You
First aid kits are emergency equipment. They don't need attention every day, but when someone cuts themselves badly or spills boiling water on their hand, the kit needs to have what they need. Right then. Not after a trip to the pharmacy.
The legal position is clear. The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require employers to provide adequate and appropriate equipment, facilities, and personnel for first aid. The regulations don't specify exact kit contents because that depends on your risk assessment, but HSE guidance gives recommended contents for standard workplace kits. An HSE inspector will check that your kits are stocked, accessible, and regularly inspected. If they open a kit and find expired dressings or empty plaster boxes, that's a finding.
The reason checks matter is simple: kits deplete through normal use. Plasters are the first thing to go. Staff take them for minor cuts without telling anyone, and within a few weeks the box is empty. Dressings get used for wounds during service. Gloves run down because every first aid intervention should use them. Beyond depletion, sterile items expire. An expired sterile dressing may not be sterile at all, and using it on an open wound can introduce infection rather than prevent it.
In catering environments there's an extra consideration. Standard plasters are not acceptable in food preparation areas. You need blue detectable plasters, visible if they fall into food and ideally metal-detectable. I've seen inspectors specifically check for this. If your kitchen kit has flesh-coloured plasters, that's wrong.
The frequency should be at least monthly. Higher-risk environments or heavy-use kitchens may need weekly checks. After any incident where multiple items are used, restock that day. Don't wait for the next scheduled check.
Setting It Up as a Work Activity
Pilla has a pre-built first aid kit check template covering location identification, a full contents inspection, check result, and restocking notes. The template gives you a structured starting point, but you should edit it if your kits contain additional items specific to your risk assessment.
When you create the work activity, give it a tag (e.g. "First Aid Kit Check"). Tags make it easy to find and filter later, and they're what Poppi uses to track completion in automated reports. If you have multiple kits, create a separate recurring work activity for each one so you can track them individually.
Set it up as a recurring monthly work schedule. Pilla will create the check now and automatically create the next one in a month. Assign it to the person responsible for first aid at each location, usually your appointed first aider or a duty manager.
1. First aid kit location
Record which first aid kit you're inspecting. Most workplaces have multiple kits and each one needs tracking individually.
Tracking by location creates a maintenance history for each kit. If one is always depleted while another is untouched, the records reveal patterns. Use identification that anyone could follow to find the kit: "Kitchen, wall mounted by hand wash station" or "Reception, behind desk in top drawer" or "FAK-01" if you use a numbering system.
The common mistake here is vague naming. "Main first aid kit" means nothing if you have four. "Kitchen" doesn't say where in the kitchen. Use the same identifier each month so records are consistent.
2. First aid kit contents
This is the core of the check. Work through every item systematically, checking presence, quantity, condition, and expiry dates.
First aid guidance leaflet: Every kit should contain one. Not everyone is first aid trained, and the leaflet provides guidance for untrained people who need to help. Check it's present and legible.
Sterile dressings (assorted sizes): You need small, medium, and large wound dressings in adequate quantities. Check that sterile packaging is intact and everything is within its expiry date. Large dressings are the ones most often missing because they get used and not replaced.
Bandages (triangular and roller): Triangular bandages are the most versatile item in the kit. They work as slings, for immobilisation, and for securing dressings. Check you have the right quantities and they're clean and undamaged.
Adhesive plasters: The most commonly used item and the first to run out. In food handling environments these must be blue and ideally metal-detectable. Check the quantity, check the colour matches your environment, and check the expiry date. Plasters do expire.
Sterile eye pads: Check they're present, packaging intact, and within expiry date. Eye injuries from chemical splashes and debris need immediate treatment, and expired sterile supplies can cause more harm than good.
Safety pins: They secure bandages and slings. Check they're present, not rusted, and functional. They tend to go missing because people borrow them for other purposes.
Disposable gloves: Anyone providing first aid should wear gloves. Check you have multiple pairs, ideally in different sizes, and include a non-latex option. Latex allergy is common enough that relying on latex-only gloves is a problem.
Face shield or pocket mask: A barrier device for rescue breathing. Check it's present, undamaged, and clean. Most people don't know it's in the kit, which is a training issue more than a check issue, but confirm it's there.
Burn gel or dressing: Not part of the standard HSE recommended contents, but if your workplace has burn risk (kitchens, bars, any environment with hot surfaces or liquids), it should be in there. Check expiry dates.
All items within expiry date: This deserves its own pass through the kit. Check every sterile item. Expired sterile supplies are not sterile. New items should go behind older ones, not on top, and you should check actual dates rather than assuming position means freshness.
Kit container clean and undamaged: The container protects the contents. Check it's clean, the lid closes properly, and there's no damage allowing dirt or water in. A dirty, broken container suggests dirty, unreliable contents.
First aid signage visible: People need to find the kit quickly in an emergency. Check the white cross on green background sign is near the kit, visible from the area it serves, and not obscured by posters or equipment.
3. Check result
Based on your inspection, record whether the kit passes or needs attention. Pass only if the kit is genuinely ready for use: all items present, adequate quantities, everything within expiry date, container and signage satisfactory.
Any deficiency is a fail. A few missing items means the kit isn't ready. Near-expiry items should be flagged now rather than left for next month. A fail isn't a problem. It's the check doing its job.
4. Items to restock
List exactly what needs restocking or replacing. Be specific: "6x medium wound dressings, 1 pack blue plasters, 2 pairs large gloves" is useful. "Various items" is not.
For each item, note the quantity needed and whether the reason is depletion or expiry. This matters for restocking decisions. If items are expiring unused, you may be overstocking. If the same items are depleted every month, you may need a larger kit or more frequent checks.
Order promptly after the check. The point of identifying gaps is to close them, not to document them and wait.
Common mistakes I see:
Counting items without checking dates is the most frequent one. A kit can look full and be full of expired supplies. I've opened kits where every dressing was out of date by six months or more but nobody had noticed because the quantities looked right.
Adding medication to first aid kits is the other one I come across regularly. No painkillers, no antihistamines, no creams. First aiders aren't qualified to administer medication, and doing so could cause harm from allergies, interactions, or incorrect dosing. If your workplace provides medication separately, that needs its own controls.
Not restocking after significant use is a timing issue. If someone has a bad cut on Monday and the first aider uses three large dressings and half the plasters, restock on Monday. Don't wait until the Friday check.
Automate the Follow-Up with Poppi
Setting up the check is one thing. Making sure it actually gets done every month is another. Poppi can handle the chasing so you don't have to.
If you set the work activity up on a recurring monthly schedule, Poppi will track who's completed their check and who hasn't. You can set up automations to chase the person responsible when the check is overdue, notify managers when it's done, and get a regular report showing the status across all your kits.
Here are three automations I'd set up for recurring safety checks:
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Overdue training reminders
Automatically chase team members who have mandatory policies they haven't read yet. Poppi sends the reminder so you don't have to.
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Video completion alerts
Get notified when a team member finishes reading or watching a policy, so you can track progress without chasing.
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.
Training gap analysis
Get a regular AI report showing which team members are behind on mandatory policies and where the gaps are across your team.
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.