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Malls Should Have Trained First-Aid Staff

DUBAI — Malls and shopping centres should have trained first-aid personnel to offer care before the arrival of paramedics and ambulances in emergency situations, officials have said.

Senior government officials and doctors were responding to Monday’s Khaleej Times report on a recent incident in which an electrician, who fell from the first floor of a Sharjah mall, was left without first aid for about 45 minutes as the mall’s management was 
worried about the legality of offering him first aid or shifting him to hospital on their own.

The Director of Public Health and Safety, Dubai Municipality, Redha Hassan Salman, said all big private establishments are legally required to train some of their staff in first-aid services. “We are also asking malls to have this requirement in place,” Salman said.

“They should have at least 
their security guards trained in first-aid services.”

He said malls and shopping 
centres should also allot a room or designate a place for providing first aid to any injured victim, whether it is a staff or a visitor. The Head of Occupational Health Section in the Ministry of Health in Dubai, Dr Ahmed Nabil M. Abou Taleb, said first aid training was essential for employees in malls to avoid and deal with occupational injuries as well.

“I suggest that malls should have at least one staff trained in first-aid services for every 1,000 visitors,” Taleb said.

The Technical Director of Centre of Ambulance Services in Dubai, Omar Al Sakaf, said most of the malls in Dubai have people trained in first aid. “Many have also entered into an agreement with us to station our paramedics in their premises to provide emergency first-aid services,” Sakaf said.

Speaking on the sidelines of World First Aid Day celebrations, organised by Al Ghurair Foods in Dubai, the Managing Director of Dubai Heart Centre, Dr.Rajan Sadanandan, said private employers were legally obliged to train staff in first aid and ensure that 
an injured victim in their premises receives minimum standard of pre-hospital care. “Neglecting a bleeding patient is legally, morally, and medically unacceptable,” Sadanadan said. “There is no law that punishes people for helping injured people.”

He said malls should also provide a dedicated, confined area for offering first aid and should have a stock of first-aid kits, oxygen, spine board, automated external defibrillators and other equipment. Noting that first-aiders should keep refreshing their skills and competency, Dr. Sadanandan said, “When people take first aid training, they reduce their risk of getting injured by as much as 40 per cent, because they become 
aware of potential dangers and learn to avoid them.”

The Chairman of Al Ghurair Foods, Essa Al Ghurair, said the first-aid training programme in his company had helped the staff to make use of it even at their homes.

sajila@khaleejtimes.ae