Blog · Compliance
First Aid Room Requirements for Workplaces in Dubai — And Why Each One Exists
Dubai publishes a detailed standard for first aid provision at work. It sits in Administrative Resolution No. (7) of 2022, issued by the Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services.
It applies to all workplaces in the emirate — public and private entities, and construction sites — and employers are required to comply.
Most facilities managers have heard of it. Rather fewer have read it. What follows is the substance, with the reasoning attached, because a requirement you understand is one you are far more likely to implement properly.
First: do you need a first aid room at all?
The Resolution does not say every workplace needs one. It says the requirement follows from your risk assessment, and it lists five factors to weigh:
- The size or area of the premises
- The type of activity conducted at the workplace
- The accident frequency rate at the workplace
- The existence of specific risks within the workplace
- Proximity of the workplace to the nearest medical facility
That fifth factor is the one people underweight. A small office in Business Bay with a hospital eight minutes away is a genuinely different proposition from an equivalent facility on the outskirts of the emirate. Distance to definitive care is a multiplier on everything else.
Staffing: the table that actually binds
The Resolution categorises workplaces by risk and sets minimum personnel accordingly.
Low risk — workplaces without exposure to hazards likely to cause serious injury. Examples given: offices, banks, retail outlets, small construction sites.
| Number of people | Minimum requirement |
|---|---|
| Fewer than 50 | One EMT or one First Responder |
| 50 or more | Two EMTs |
High risk — workplaces with exposure to hazards that could cause serious injury or illness requiring immediate medical attention. Examples given: large construction sites, chemical plants, ship building docks, factories, commercial and amusement centres, exhibition halls.
| Requirement |
|---|
| One AEMT per shift where shifts operate; otherwise two AEMTs |
Why it is written this way. The low-risk threshold at 50 people reflects a simple reality: one responder cannot simultaneously treat a casualty, call for help, manage bystanders and meet the ambulance at the gate. Below fifty people the odds of needing all four at once are low. Above it, they are not.
The high-risk requirement is "per shift" for the same reason a fire extinguisher is not useful in a locked cupboard. Cover that exists only during day shift is not cover on a site running around the clock.
The word that matters most. The Resolution defines a Professional as a person authorised by DCAS to provide ambulance services. A generic first aid certificate does not meet this. Your responder needs to be licensed by the regulator, not merely trained.
Note that the Resolution does not define the boundary between a "small" and a "large" construction site. That determination comes out of your own risk assessment and safety statement.
The first aid provision plan
Before the room, the Resolution requires a plan, structured in four stages:
- Planning — setting the standards for the room and a timeframe to furnish and prepare it
- Implementation — a timeframe reflecting the actual conditions of the working environment
- Verification — monitoring and measuring operations, objectives and legal requirements, and reporting outcomes, including the effectiveness of the paramedics and the room
- Follow up — regular action to improve health and safety, adopting the appropriate standards for the activity and workplace
Why. This is the difference between a compliant facility and a facility that survives an inspection once. The verification and follow-up stages force someone to ask, periodically, whether the arrangement is still working — after headcount changes, after a new work package starts, after an incident.
The room itself
Dimensions and construction
| Requirement | Reason |
|---|---|
| Minimum 4 × 4 metres | Enough space for a bed with people able to work around it from both sides. Two responders managing an unconscious patient need room on either side and at the head. |
| Large enough for a bed with room to move, plus emergency lighting | Power failures do not schedule themselves around medical emergencies. |
| Non-slip flooring | The floor will get wet — spilled fluids, water, cleaning. A responder who slips becomes a second casualty. |
| Collapsible or removable walls where the workplace is temporary | Construction sites grow and change. The room needs to scale with headcount rather than being rebuilt. |
| Ceiling material that does not collect dust and is easy to clean (recommended) | Dust falling onto exposed wounds or sterile equipment is an infection risk. |
| Privacy maintained, obscuring windows if necessary | Patients are examined and undressed. Dignity is not optional, and a patient who feels watched will resist examination. |
| Temperature and humidity at comfortable levels | Relevant in a climate where heat illness is a leading presentation. Treating heat exhaustion in an un-airconditioned room does not work. |
| Clearly signed as a First Aid Room | In an emergency people search, they do not read directories. |
| Marked on the site plan | So the ambulance crew, and anyone unfamiliar, can find it immediately. |
| Entrance wide enough for stretchers, trolleys, wheelchairs and evacuation chairs | A room a stretcher cannot enter forces the casualty to be moved twice. |
| Kept clean, well ventilated, heated and lit | Basic infection control and usability. |
| A telephone or other means of communication in the room | The responder cannot leave the patient to go and find a phone. |
| Emergency telephone numbers posted in the room | Under pressure, nobody recalls numbers reliably. |
Minimum facilities and equipment
The Resolution lists what must be present:
- A washbasin with running hot and cold water
- Drinking water and disposable cups
- A store appropriate for first aid equipment and materials
- First aid equipment
- Smooth-topped working surfaces
- Soap
- Paper towels
- Waste containers lined with disposable plastic bags
- A bed with a waterproof surface, and a frequently cleaned pillow and blankets
- A chair
- An appropriate container for use in providing first aid
- A small fridge for storing test solutions and medicine
- Medications suitable for the workplace activity and the experience level of the paramedics working there
- Clean protective gear for the paramedics
- A first aid treatment record
A few of these deserve explanation.
Hot and cold running water is not comfort. Chemical splashes and burns need irrigation, and hand hygiene between patients depends on it.
Smooth-topped surfaces exist so they can be disinfected. Porous or textured surfaces cannot be reliably decontaminated.
A waterproof bed surface is for the same reason. Blood and body fluids soak into fabric.
Medications suitable for the activity and the experience level of the paramedics is a carefully worded constraint. Stocking a drug your responder is not licensed to administer creates a liability, not a capability. The stock should match both the hazards on site and the scope of practice of whoever is on duty.
The treatment record is the item most often missing, and it is the one that matters afterwards — for the patient's continuity of care, for insurance, and if the incident is investigated.
Where to put it
The Resolution sets out four locational criteria, and each solves a specific problem:
- Near bathrooms, for cleaning and disinfection
- Near lifts and main corridors that allow stretcher and wheelchair access
- Signposted throughout the workplace
- Accessible from work areas, and accessible to the car park so casualties can be moved to the ambulance
That last one is the one that gets designed out. A beautifully specified first aid room on the fourth floor with no service lift is a room the ambulance crew will struggle to use. Walk the route from the room to where an ambulance would actually park, with a stretcher, before you sign off the location.
First aid kits
Requirements that apply across the workplace, not just in the room:
- Kits distributed around the workplace so trained employees can reach the equipment quickly and safely
- Contents in sufficient quantity for the workplace's needs
- Where a physician or paramedic is present, PPE such as a CPR mask and latex-free gloves included
- Employers may increase quantities, but must not place non-first-aid items, perishables, or dangerous materials such as medicines and creams into the kit
- Kits inspected at least four times a year, with the date and the signature of the inspector recorded on the kit's inspection card
- An "In Case of Injury at the Workplace" poster placed at the first aid station, setting out employer and employee responsibilities. DCAS makes these available in different sizes free of charge on request
Kit contents vary by the number of employees, the size and type of premises, and whether a nurse or occupational physician is available. The Resolution's annexes give indicative content lists based on ANSI/ISEA Z308.1-2015 for different environments — construction sites, factories, restaurants and catering, hotels and amusement parks, beaches and pools, salons, and camping sites.
Why the four-times-a-year rule exists. Sterile dressings expire. Adhesive perishes in heat. Items get used and not replaced. A kit that has never been checked is, statistically, a kit with something missing.
Why medicines are excluded. An unsupervised box of painkillers in a workplace is a governance problem, and expired or heat-degraded medication is worse than none.
Information that must be known and available
The Resolution requires the following to be established and communicated:
- The location, names and contact details of First Responders
- Who is responsible for inspecting the contents of first aid kits
- The location of the nearest kit to each employee's place of work
- Who is responsible for inspecting the automated external defibrillator
- The location of the nearest AED
- The location of the accident record
Why. Every one of these is a question someone will ask in a hurry, at the worst possible moment. Answering them in advance, in writing, on a noticeboard, is the entire point.
Emergency numbers
The Resolution publishes them directly:
| Service | Number |
|---|---|
| Ambulance | 998 |
| Police | 999 |
| Fire Department | 997 |
These should be posted in the first aid room and at the station.
Special requirements worth flagging
Mass casualty provision. Where such incidents are plausible, the workplace must have a safe evacuation area and sufficient equipment — stretchers, wheelchairs, linen, blankets — to deal with multiple casualties.
Chemical hazards. Where a chemical that may pose a health hazard is used, special instructions must be posted, and the current chemical safety data sheet displayed prominently at the point of use so it is accessible to employees. Paramedics handling chemicals must receive specific training in early management of chemical poisoning, including decontamination.
Accident register. A register must be maintained recording the circumstances of an accident as described by the employee involved — date and time, names of witnesses, the nature and exact location of the injury, and the date, time and type of each first aid treatment provided.
Protective equipment. Responders must be provided with protective gear appropriate to the risk, stored properly and inspected regularly. Universal precautions apply, with additional precautions for blood and body fluids. Hepatitis B vaccination for paramedics is recommended, and WHO and CDC guidelines are to be followed.
Remote and isolated workplaces
Where work is isolated, remote or project-based, a written first aid plan is required. It must ensure compliance with the Resolution's minimum standards and specifically set out:
- The method of transporting the injured
- The methods of communication
- The number of first aid employees and their qualifications
- A list of first aid supplies to be available at all facilities
The plan must suit the type of work, everyone present must comply with it, and where required a committee or representative should be consulted in developing it.
There is one exemption: where an employer has employees working in a remote area and none of them spends more than ten percent of their time there per month, a remote-area plan is not required.
Automated external defibrillators must be provided at remote workplaces. The Resolution ties provision to the presence of a First Responder, encourages other employees to train on AED use, and requires the equipment to be maintained and trainee knowledge kept current.
The five failures we see most often
- A room that exists but is used for storage. It counts on the drawing and not in reality.
- No inspection card on the kits. The kits may be perfect; without the signed record there is no evidence.
- Responders who are certified but not DCAS-authorised. A common and expensive misunderstanding.
- Single-shift cover on a multi-shift site. Night shifts are when fatigue-related incidents cluster.
- A room the ambulance cannot reach. Nobody walks the stretcher route until the day it matters.
Where ART fits
ART Ambulance Services LLC is a DCAS-licensed provider (Permit E24005) operating across the UAE, and part of the Ambuce Rescue Team group, founded in Belgium in 1975.
We place DCAS-licensed EMTs, paramedics and advanced paramedics into workplaces across construction, industrial, logistics and commercial sites — and we help clients scope what the Resolution actually requires for their specific risk profile, rather than defaulting to whatever the last contractor did.
If you want a straightforward read on where your site currently stands, we are happy to look.
+971 800 1020 · info@art-ambulance.ae
This article summarises Administrative Resolution No. (7) of 2022 for general information. It is not legal advice and does not replace the original text or hands-on training. Regulations change — always verify current requirements with the Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services.