Training for Healthcare Providers
Accredited first aid and health and safety training for clinics, frail care and retirement facilities, medical and dental practices, pharmacies and occupational health providers. Delivered at your facility, around your rosters, by trainers who work in emergency care.
At a glance
- Delivered at your facility, around shift rosters
- Accredited certification valid for three years
- Covers clinical and non-clinical staff alike
- Meets General Safety Regulations first aider requirements
- Run by an operating emergency medical service
The training
Why healthcare facilities still need first aid training
It is a fair question. A clinic is full of clinically trained people, so first aid training can look redundant. In practice it rarely is, for three reasons that come up on nearly every site we visit.
The first is legal. The Occupational Health and Safety Act and its General Safety Regulations do not exempt healthcare employers. If you employ more than ten people you must have appointed first aiders with valid certification, and a clinical qualification is not the same thing as the appointment and the certificate the inspector asks for.
The second is coverage. Your clinical staff are not evenly spread across the building or the roster. The collapse happens at reception, in the car park, in the kitchen, or at nine in the evening when one nurse is on duty. Administrative, cleaning, catering, security and maintenance staff are usually the nearest person, and training them changes the outcome.
Who we train
Facilities we work with
The training is the same accredited curriculum; what changes is the scenario work and who we put through it.
Clinics and day hospitals
Appointed first aiders across clinical and support staff, plus emergency response drills for the whole facility.
Frail care and retirement facilities
Carers, kitchen and housekeeping staff and night-shift teams, with scenario work weighted towards falls, choking and collapse in elderly residents.
Medical and dental practices
Practice staff who are first on the scene when a patient deteriorates in the waiting room, and who need to manage it until the ambulance arrives.
Pharmacies and occupational health
Front-of-house and dispensary staff, and occupational health providers who need certificated first aiders on their own compliance record.
The levels
Which level do your staff need?
Accredited first aid runs at three levels. Most healthcare facilities use a mix rather than putting everyone through the same course.
| Level | Best suited to | Typically covers |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Administrative, reception, catering, housekeeping and security staff | Basic life support, bleeding, choking, burns, shock and how to hand over to an ambulance crew |
| Level 2 | Carers, ward assistants, supervisors and appointed first aiders | Level 1 content plus fractures, spinal precautions, medical emergencies and casualty assessment |
| Level 3 | Facility response teams, night-shift leads and health and safety representatives | Advanced casualty management, multiple casualties, oxygen and equipment use, and coordinating a response |
How it works
How we run training at a healthcare facility
01
We look at your roster first
A healthcare facility cannot empty a ward for a training day. We split groups across shifts and run sessions so the facility stays staffed throughout.
02
We agree numbers against the regulations
The General Safety Regulations point to one first aider for every fifty employees where more than ten are employed. We work out what your headcount, shifts and layout actually require rather than quoting a round number.
03
We train on your premises
Your corridors, your equipment locations, your emergency exits. Staff practise where they will actually respond, which is the part that survives contact with a real incident.
04
You get certification and a record
Accredited certification valid for three years, with the documentation you need for your health and safety file and for an inspection.
Tell us your headcount and shifts and we will quote you.
Why train with an ambulance service?
We are the crew that arrives. Ralmed operates an emergency medical service, so we train your staff to hand over the way a real crew needs it — which is where most handovers fall apart.
Our trainers still work clinically. The scenarios come from calls they have run, not from a textbook chapter.
We understand shift-based facilities. Training that ignores your roster does not get completed. We plan around it from the start.
One provider for the whole file. First aid, occupational health and safety, fire fighting, risk assessment and incident investigation from the same team.
Cost
What does it cost to train a facility?
We quote per facility rather than publishing a rate, because the cost of training a twelve-person practice and a ninety-bed frail care facility have almost nothing in common. What affects the number:
These are the things that set the price:
- How many staff need certification, and at which levels
- How many separate sessions your roster requires
- Whether we train at your facility or at our training room
- Whether you need first aid alone or health and safety training too
- How many sites are involved, and where they are
Send us your headcount, your shift pattern and your location and we will come back with a written quote.
Your options
What else facilities usually need
First aid is the starting point. These are the courses healthcare clients most often add.
| Course | What it covers | Who it suits | Why facilities add it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Occupational health and safety | OHS Act duties, committees, representatives and record keeping | Health and safety representatives and facility managers | Closes the compliance gap that first aid training alone leaves open |
| Fire fighting | Extinguisher use, fire classes and evacuation | Fire teams, night staff and floor marshals | Evacuating residents who cannot self-evacuate needs practice |
| Incident investigation | Investigating incidents and reporting them correctly | Managers and health and safety representatives | Required after a reportable incident, and better learned beforehand |
Get started
Arrange training for your facility
Tell us how many staff, on what shifts, at which sites. We will tell you what the regulations require and what it costs.
At your facility
89 Impala Road, Kelvin View, Sandton
Anywhere in South Africa.
Training and an ambulance from one provider
Many of our healthcare clients also use us for standby medical cover and emergency response. If your facility needs both, it is simpler when the crew and the trainers come from the same organisation.
See our first aid courses, our full training range, or our ambulance services.
Questions
Questions from healthcare facilities
Do our nurses need first aid certificates too?
Clinically they may not need the content, but the OHS Act requirement is about appointed first aiders holding valid certification, and that is a separate matter from a professional registration. Many facilities certificate a mix of clinical and non-clinical staff so that cover exists on every shift.
How many first aiders does our facility need?
The General Safety Regulations point to one first aider for every fifty employees where more than ten people are employed. In a shift-based facility the practical number is usually higher, because cover has to exist on every shift and in every part of the building, not on paper.
Can you train without shutting down the facility?
Yes, and it is the normal arrangement. We split staff into groups across shifts and run separate sessions so the facility stays staffed. Tell us your roster and we will build the schedule around it.
Do you come to us?
Yes. We deliver training at the client's premises anywhere in South Africa, which is what most healthcare facilities prefer because staff train in the building where they will respond.
How long is the certification valid?
Three years. We flag renewals ahead of expiry so certification does not lapse between audits, which is the most common compliance failure we see on healthcare sites.
Can you train night and weekend shifts?
Yes. Night staff are frequently the least-trained group in a facility and the most likely to be alone with an emergency, so we would rather schedule an awkward session than leave that shift uncovered.
Do you train carers in a frail care facility?
Yes, and it is some of the most useful training we do. The scenario work weights towards falls, choking, collapse and recognising deterioration in elderly residents, which is what actually happens on those sites.
What documentation do we get?
Accredited certification for each person, plus the attendance and training records you need for your health and safety file. Facilities being audited should ask us for the documentation set up front so nothing is missing later.
Can you handle several sites?
Yes. We train multi-site clients on a rolling schedule so certification stays current across all locations and renewals do not all fall in the same month.
Can you also provide an ambulance for our facility?
Yes. Ralmed operates emergency and standby medical services alongside training. If you need both, ask us about the two together and we will quote them as one arrangement.
Related pages
Related training
See our first aid courses, occupational health and safety training and fire fighting training.
Request a quote for your facility
Send us your headcount, shift pattern and location, and we will come back with what the regulations require and what it costs to get there.