Health and Safety management within your company

Accidents at the place of work have unfortunately become a common occurrence in recent years. Statistics for last year show that between October and December alone there were 1,014 injuries at the workplace.

The bigger the industry, and the more hazards, the higher the risk of injuries and work-related illnesses. However, this doesn't mean that small businesses do not run these risks. As an occupational physician it is my duty to raise awareness and help both employers and employees confront these issues.

What is occupational medicine?

Occupational medicine focuses on enhancing and maintaining the health and safety of persons at work; ensuring they operate safely, considering any health issues they may have. This practice of medicine also contributes to organisational effectiveness of enterprises by providing expert medical advice to management.

Implementing health and safety measures at work does not need to be expensive, time consuming or complicated. In fact safer and more efficient work practices can often save money, but most importantly they can help save lives.

It is also important to outline that the health of the worker is not only an ethical or contractual duty, but also a legal duty. Health and safety laws exist for all businesses, no matter their size.

Managing health and safety at work is little different from managing any other aspect of the business. One must carry out a risk assessment to find out about the risks at the workplace, put sensible measures in place to control them, and make sure they stay controlled.

One example is the use of computers or other display screen equipment, which might give rise to back problems, repetitive strain injury and other musculo-skeletal disorders. These health problems may become serious if no action is taken.

They can be caused by poor design of workstations, insufficient space, lack of training or not taking breaks from display screen work. Screens do not cause eye damage, but many users experience temporary eye strain or stress after many hours of work. This can lead to reduced work efficiency or taking time off work.

Prevention is the key issue in health and safety. However sometimes things do go wrong. If someone has been hurt or fallen ill at work it is important to take care of them straight away, and make any dangerous conditions safe. First Aid means treating minor injuries at work and giving immediate attention to more serious casualties until medical help is available.

Through this initial management of injury or illness suffered at work, lives can be saved and minor injuries prevented from becoming major ones. Reporting work-related injuries to enforcing authorities is essential. It is important that they see the whole picture of the where and why of these injuries or ill health. This will enable them to give advice on preventive action.

Managing sickness absence and return to work is another major issue which employers and managers are facing. Everyone will probably need to take sick leave at some point during their working lives, and in most cases this only lasts a few days. But long-term sickness absence can have devastating effects on the performance of your business and the health and well-being of your employees.

Considerable benefits can be delivered from working in partnership with your employees and their trade union representatives. This would improve business performance, retain valuable staff, and better workplace relations.

Recognition of absence problems is important, as this will help you arrive to how to develop an absence strategy and how to deal with short-term and long-term absence problems.

Awareness of health and safety measures that the employer together with his employees has to take at the workplace is of utmost importance. However, this is not everything. It is important that a professional company is contacted for occupational health and safety auditing, advice and training.

Dr Apap is one of a team of allied health professionals that makes up Medicare Services. Set up five years ago, Medicare Services offers consultations on health and safety, among a host of other services.