First aid & emergency

AED provision in the South African workplace

What first-aid law actually requires, where an AED genuinely changes outcomes, and how to keep one usable.

Departments: First Aid & Emergency · PPE & Workplace Safety

There is a persistent belief that South African occupational health and safety law requires every workplace to hold an automated external defibrillator. It does not. Occupational health and safety legislation requires employers to provide first-aid facilities and trained first aiders appropriate to the size and risk of the workplace, and the detail is set out in regulations made under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. AEDs are not part of that general requirement. Confirm your specific obligations with a registered health and safety practitioner — this guide is about the purchasing decision, not a legal opinion.

Why organisations buy them anyway

Sudden cardiac arrest survival falls sharply with every minute that passes before defibrillation. In most South African urban settings, an ambulance will not arrive inside that window. An AED on site, in the hands of someone willing to open the lid, is the intervention most likely to close that gap. That is the case for buying one — not compliance.

Where an AED earns its place

• Sites with large numbers of people present: shopping centres, schools, campuses, stadiums, places of worship, call centres, factories.
• Sites with an older or higher-risk population on the premises.
• Sites remote from emergency services, including mines, farms and industrial parks.
• Sites where physical exertion is routine — gyms, sports facilities, warehouses.

Choosing between units

• Semi-automatic against fully automatic. Semi-automatic prompts the rescuer to press the shock button; fully automatic delivers it after a warning. Fully automatic removes one moment of hesitation for untrained bystanders.
• Voice prompting. Clear prompts, and ideally in more than one language, do more for real-world outcomes than any technical specification.
• Paediatric capability. Schools and family venues should specify either paediatric pads or a paediatric mode.
• Environmental rating. Outdoor, dusty or wash-down sites need a sealed unit and an appropriate cabinet.
• CPR feedback. Units that coach compression rate and depth measurably improve the quality of CPR from untrained rescuers.

The costs that arrive after the purchase order

Pads and batteries expire. Budget for replacement on a schedule, not on discovery. Ask, before you buy, what a set of adult pads and a battery cost and how long each lasts, because consumable cost over five years can approach the price of the unit. Ask whether the unit self-tests and how it signals a fault.

Installation and readiness

• Mount it where it can be reached and returned within about three minutes, signed clearly.
• Unlocked, or in an alarmed cabinet — a locked AED behind a manager's door has never saved anyone.
• Record it in your emergency plan and tell reception and security where it is.
• Check monthly: status indicator, pad expiry, battery expiry, spare pads present.
• Train and re-train. A trainer unit lets you drill without consuming live pads.

An AED is only ever half of the answer. Uninterrupted chest compressions from the moment of collapse are the other half, and they are free.