First Aid Kit Inspection and Servicing: Frequency, Contents and Risk-Based Modules

“It’s got a cross on the front and some bandaids in it. That’s a first aid kit.”

A box with a cross on it isn’t automatically a functioning workplace first aid kit. It’s only genuinely useful if its contents are current, complete, and actually matched to the risks of the workplace it’s sitting in. A kit nobody’s checked in a year is a kit nobody should trust in an actual emergency, however complete it may have looked on the day it was first stocked.

What proper inspection covers

• Frequency. A defined, regular inspection schedule, not a check whenever someone happens to notice the box looks empty.
• Expiry dates. Every item checked against its expiry, not just a glance confirming the box looks full, since expired items can be present in quantity while being functionally useless.
• Packaging and stock condition. Items still sealed, undamaged and usable, not degraded from heat, moisture or age, particularly relevant for kits stored in vehicles or outdoor locations.
• Quantities. Stock levels matched to what the kit is meant to hold, not gradually depleted without replenishment after routine use.
• Replenishment. A clear, fast process for restocking used or expired items, so a kit doesn’t sit partially depleted for an extended period between formal checks.
• Accessibility. The kit genuinely reachable, not stored behind something or in a locked area without a known key holder readily available.
• Responsible persons. A named person accountable for each kit’s condition, not a general assumption someone will notice if it’s wrong.
• Records. Evidence of inspections, restocking and any first aid usage, kept against the specific kit, giving a genuine traceable history.

The obligation, not just good practice

This isn’t a matter of tidy housekeeping. The WHS Regulations (regulation 42, First Aid) require a PCBU (the business conducting the work) to consider four specific things when deciding what first aid provision a workplace needs:

• The nature of the work being carried out. What the people doing it are actually exposed to.
• The nature of the hazards at the workplace. A factory floor and an office carry different risk, and the provision should say so.
• The size and location of the workplace. Including how far away professional medical help actually is.
• The number and composition of the workers. Headcount, but also who’s on it: shift patterns, contractors, anyone with a known health condition.

That’s the actual test. Not “is there a kit somewhere,” but has someone genuinely worked through those four factors for this workplace, which is a risk assessment in miniature. The Code of Practice First Aid in the Workplace (the nationally developed guidance adopted in South Australia) sets out how to meet that obligation in practice, and it’s more specific than most businesses assume:

• First aiders. The recommended ratio is one trained first aider for every 50 workers in a low-risk workplace, or one for every 25 workers in a high-risk workplace. Where a high-risk workplace doesn’t have timely access to emergency services, that tightens to one first aider for every 10 workers.
• First aid rooms. Recommended once a low-risk workplace reaches 200 workers, or a high-risk workplace reaches 100 workers.
• Kit locations. In a multi-storey building, at least one kit on every second floor; separate work areas generally each need their own kit rather than relying on one central kit everyone has to walk to.

It’s guidance on how to comply, not a substitute for the obligation itself. A business still has to work through its own risk assessment rather than copying someone else’s kit list, and the Code says as much: consulting your own workers on the number, location and contents of kits is part of getting this right, not an optional extra.

“It’s just the vehicle kit”: the belief that leaves fleets exposed

“The car’s got a little kit in the glovebox. That’s covered.”

A vehicle isn’t a lesser version of a workplace, it is one. The WHS Act defines “workplace” as a place where work is carried out, and defines “place” to expressly include a vehicle, vessel, aircraft or other mobile structure, so a work vehicle is a workplace in its own right, the same as an office or a site shed. The Code of Practice makes the practical consequence explicit: a portable first aid kit should be provided in the vehicle of any mobile worker whose vehicle is their workplace. Couriers, sales reps, technicians, anyone whose job has them working from the vehicle rather than just driving to a fixed site. That’s not an optional extra module. It’s the same obligation a fixed site carries, just sitting in a different location.

What that kit needs to contain still comes back to the same risk assessment, but for genuinely remote or isolated work the Code points to specific additions most businesses wouldn’t think to include: a heavy-duty crepe bandage for snake bite, large clean sheeting for covering burns, a thermal blanket for shock, and a whistle and torch for signalling and visibility if someone has to wait for help to arrive. A glovebox kit stocked with plasters and nothing else isn’t a smaller version of compliant. It’s a different thing altogether.

Additional risk-based modules

Beyond a standard kit, specific higher-risk activities often warrant additional, purpose-built modules:

• Burns. For kitchens, hot work, or process heat, where the specific injury type warrants dedicated supplies beyond a general kit.
• Eye injuries. For workshops, laboratories or chemical handling, where rapid, specific treatment matters.
• Remote work. Extended-content kits for locations far from professional medical help, where a standard kit’s scope simply isn’t adequate for the realistic delay before help arrives.
• Vehicles. On top of the fully compliant base kit every work vehicle needs, additional content for the specific conditions of working away from a fixed site.
• Construction. Kits matched to construction-specific injury risks, reflecting the particular hazards of that work.
• Laboratories. Modules addressing chemical or biological exposure risks specific to lab work.
• Mining and other higher-risk activities. Extended modules matched to the elevated risk profile of these environments.

Questions worth asking yourself

• Could I actually tell an adequate kit from an inadequate one for my workplace, or am I just trusting that a kit exists?
• When was any kit on this site last inspected against expiry dates, item by item, and could I produce the record?
• If the vehicle is where some of our people actually work, does each of those vehicles carry a genuine kit, or a glovebox token?
• Do our different work areas carry kits matched to their actual risks, or identical boxes because they share a logo?
• Am I the right person to judge whether our provision meets the obligation, or have I never had to think it through properly?

Why WLSS

The WLSS team runs an actual assessment against the same four factors the regulation sets out (the work, the hazards, the site, the workforce) rather than assuming last year’s kit is still the right one. Kits aren’t picked off a shelf and shipped out: the WLSS team builds every kit tailored to the specific business, its workforce and its actual risk profile, and puts the assessment behind that recommendation in writing every time, even when the honest answer is a bigger kit than the cheaper quote assumed. Inspections and restocking are run directly by the WLSS team, so a kit found short on a visit gets fixed on that visit, and vehicle kits are built as full, tailored kits in their own right, not an afterthought scaled down to fit a glovebox.

• Triple ISO certified: ISO 9001, ISO 45001, ISO 14001
• 80+ years combined team experience
• 500+ SA businesses supported

Common Questions