Health and Safety Refresher 2010/11

Health and Safety Refresher E- Learning Module

Health and Safety Refresher

(Mandatory - All Staff)

Welcome

This is a printed copy of the Training Tracker e-learning module on Health and Safety. This course is aimed at all Trust staff.

By the end of this course, you should:

 Know exactly why we have a Health and Safety structure and policy

 Understand responsibility and risk in Health and Safety

 Know about Health and Safety legislation

 Understand the culture of Health and Safety

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Course Frequency:

 Please note that this particular mandatory e-learning module can only be completed bi-annually.

 All Trust staff members completing this e-module this year, as part of the annual mandatory updates, will be required to attend the classroom equivalent of the Health & Safety course next year.

Health and Safety - Introduction

Health and Safety Refresher

By Connie Wendes MIOSH, Assistant Director Occupational Health and Safety

Health and Safety is key to good working practice, in the same way we look both ways before crossing the road to ensure our safety. We need to be alert to risk at work, to

1 27/04/2018 Health and Safety Refresher E- Learning Module ensure not only our own safety, but also that of the people we work with; patients, visitors, contractors and members of the public whom we may affect by what we do and what we fail to do.

The reality is that 250 people a year lose their lives at work in Britain. In addition, around 156 000 non-fatal injuries are reported each year, and an estimated 2.3 million suffer from ill health caused or made worse by work.

Act and Regulations

The Health & Safety at Work Act (HASAW) is an 'enabling' act. This means that regulations can be made and up-dated under it without having to go through the granting of a full act of parliament, but it should be noted that these regulations have legal force.

Health and Safety law is criminal law and the breaking of the law can lead to a fine and/or imprisonment of employers and employees who are found guilty.

All potential risk in the workplace must be assessed and eliminated, if possible. If not, then the risk must be reduced to the lowest that is reasonably practicable. Most risk will have a regulation that will help the employer to understand how to discharge their duty of care; one exception to this regulation is Stress, but interpreted as a risk, this must also be assessed and reduced as far as is reasonably practicable.

What is a Hazard?

To understand how to deal with risk and hazard it is important to understand the meanings- of these words:

A hazard is something which could cause harm.

For example, a bomb may go off in a street with many shoppers about. This would cause great harm. However, if the same bomb were to go off on a deserted piece of waste land,

2 27/04/2018 Health and Safety Refresher E- Learning Module there would not be any harm caused. Two different scenarios, yet the nature and action of the bomb is the same.

What is a Risk?

Risk is different from hazard even though in everyday life we use these words in a very similar way.

If we look at the island in the picture, there are two teams of men playing tug of war. Unfortunately for them, the rope has broken. The two men nearest the edge of the island are in the greatest danger of falling off and being attacked by the crocodiles and sharks in the surrounding water. The two men either side of the break in the rope are at least risk of falling off the island and therefore not being attacked and the men in the centre position between the break and the edge of the island are at medium risk.

Most of us are familiar with the risk ratings high, medium and low and we instinctively can work out who is at greatest risk and who is at least risk. We may not be aware but we have actually done a calculation to achieve this. We have weighed up how likely the men are to fall off the island and we have also noted the hazard of the crocodile and the sharks in the water and that this will give a severe outcome to their fall. From this, it is obvious that the likelihood of something happening multiplied by the severity of its outcome gives us the risk rating.

This calculation is used on the Accident/Incident form of the Trust and is one that you will be familiar with. It is important to remember that likelihood times severity equals risk.

As Far As Is Reasonably Practicable

The law states that we must do what is reasonably practicable to avoid risks and injuries at work, but does not state that everything must be totally safe! So what does 'reasonably practicable' mean?

Simply there must be a balance of cost against risk. All action taken to reduce risk will normally have a cost, such as equipment, training or protective clothing. If the risk is high then the law states that high cost to reduce risk would be justified and practicable, and therefore the risk reduction should be carried out.

On the other hand if the risk is very low but the cost of reducing it further is very high, then it would not be reasonable to undertake the reduction.

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Risk assessment is therefore essential to ensuring that the duties of care of the employer are met.

Duties of the Employer

Every employer must ensure that, as far as is reasonably practicable, the following are safe and without risk:

 2 (2)a, Plant and Systems

 2 (2)b, Use, storage, and transport of substances and articles

 2 (2)c, Information, instruction, training and supervision

 2 (2)d, Access and egress (absolute duty)

 2 (2)e, Working environment and welfare arrangements

These employer duties are contained within the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and mean in general your employer should make your workplace safe, ensuring plant and machinery are safe and that safe systems of work are set and followed. Articles and substances should be included in to safe systems so that when they are in use, moved or stored this is done in a safe manner. It is worth noting that "articles" include patients and other people.

For safe systems and good working environments to exist all staff must have instruction, information and training, and appropriate supervision must be in place to ensure these duties are put in place and used. There must also be adequate welfare facilities.

Duties of the Employee

Section 7:

 7a: To take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and others who may be affected by acts or omissions at work.

 7b: To co-operate with his employer with regard to the employer duties so far as is necessary to enable that duty or requirement to be performed or complied with.

Section 8:

 No person shall intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided in the interest of health and safety.

All employees must take reasonable care of their own health and safety, and also must consider the safety of others (who may be affected by what they do or what they should have reasonably done but didn't.)

To co-operate with the employer using the safe systems of work provided is also a duty. When using such a system note if changes have occurred which make the safe system unworkable or unsafe. In these circumstances they should tell their supervisor urgently and seek instruction. Using safety equipment correctly is of the utmost importance and therefore the duty not to interfere or misuse anything provided in the interests of health and safety is also important.

On A Personal Note

Have you ever considered both the short-term and possible long-term effects that an accident may have on the main aspects of your life. The image to the right probably depicts six of these main aspects.

If, as a result of an accident, you are absent from your job for 1 week:

 Family - Your family would cope with your absence from family duties and life would continue virtually as usual

 Health - You're under the weather from the injury, but enjoying the time to rest

 House - The house could be a little less tidy, but you'll cope when you're back on your feet

 Money - Sick pay covers you for this period, so the bills will get paid

 Social Life - Staying in saves you a little money and you can always see friends later

 Sports - No sports for you this week. You can catch up with friends and fitness next week

On A Personal Note (Continued)

This is how these particular aspects would be affected after 1 month:

 Family - Your family are a little worn down by the chores that they have taken off you.

 Health - A fairly serious injury means your health has suffered. You are probably confined to the house most of the time and you are keen to get outside once your injury heals.

 House - The house has suffered from neglect because of your injury. Things aren't looking too tidy and you'll need to work hard to get things back to normal when you are fit again.

 Money - Sick pay is covering your bills, but you are concerned as to when you will be better.

 Social Life - Your friends visited you in the first week of your injury, but you haven't been out much or seen anyone socially for two weeks.

 Sports - You're beginning to lose contact with the friends you see during team sports. You are concerned that it will not be easy to get back into the team once you are fit again.

On A Personal Note (Continued)

....and this is how these particular aspects could be affected after 1 entire year:

 Family - Your family have become used to your injury, but there is added pressure on them as you cannot help with the chores. You now need support in your daily life.

 Health - Being housebound for a year has taken its toll on your health. Your enforced sedentary life has added weight and you have lost your fitness.

 House - Your house has been adapted to allow you to cope with your injury. Your mortgage payments are now very much more difficult to meet.

 Money - After 6 months, your sick pay reduced. Now you are relying on benefits.

 Social Life - You've hardly been out with your friends all year. Most of your time is spent in the house.

 Sports - Sport is now out of the question and your fitness is now very poor.

The Cost

The cost of an accident can be evaluated in 3 different ways: Human (Moral), Economic & Legal.

Human/Moral costs are measured in several ways:

 Pain - imagine the pain you could suffer if you had a serious accident at work.

 Injury - an injury could seriously impact upon your life in the short term, affecting what you could and could not do.

 Quality of Life - if the injury was serious and long-term.

Economic: Employees, members of the public and employers are all affected by accidents. As an employee or member of the public, your economic costs could include:

 Loss of earnings.

 Loss of family member's earnings.

 Legal fees, if you should choose to seek compensation for cost associated with your injury.

As an Employer, the costs could be high due to:

 Sick Pay

 Replacing staff temporarily for the organisation

 Legal fees and compensation

Legal: If you suffered a serious injury at work, then the legal costs for both yourself and the organisation you worked for could be high. For both employer and employee, the risk of prosecution and imprisonment is also an issue. New laws have introduced the idea of 'corporate manslaughter'. Senior managers are now accountable for what happens in organisations if they do not prove that adequate steps were taken to reduce risks. Conversely, employees can also be prosecuted if they are proven to be negligent and have ignored procedures and practices within their organisation.

Heinrich Theory (1931)

Safety pioneer Herbert Heinrich discussed his theories in his book "Industrial Accident Prevention" (1931). This is depicted in the pyramid diagram to the right. This illustrates his theory that for 1 death or serious accident that occurs, 29 other accidents with lost days will occur that will lead to 300 other non-injury accidents.

This principle still holds true as much today as it did in 1931 and clearly underlines the importance of reporting near misses as these reports can inform the organisation where safe systems are needed or require review. Corrective action can then be taken so that minor and major accidents are less likely to occur.

Similarly in 1965, an American by the name of Frank Bird Jr. co-authored a book called "Damage Control" in which he discusses his thoughts and findings regarding Health & Safety in the workplace. As director of engineering services for the Insurance Company of America, Mr. Bird Junior analyzed 1,753,498 "accidents" reported by 297 different companies. These companies employed a total of 1,750,000 employees who worked more than three billion hours during the exposure period analysed.

This produced a slightly different theory to that of Heinrich: and he found a new ratio of 600:30:10:1. Meaning that , for every 600 near misses, there will be 30 property damage incidents, 10 minor injuries, and 1 major injury.

R.I.D.D.O.R.

Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurences Regulations.

 By telephone to the HSE

 Within 10 days in writing F2508 / F2508 A

 Monitoring of all Minor and Near Misses

The trust accident/incident form must be filled in for all accidents whether or not injury or damage to property has occurred. This enables corrective action to be taken. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) must be informed of all major accidents - these are accidents that have resulted in death or very serious injury all the way down to the injured person being away from their normal work for 3 days or more. This information is sent to the HSE on a F2508 form normally filled in by departmental managers. Work related diseases will be identified on referral to Occupational Health and the Occupational Health Department will report these on a F2508A form.

Click here to see more details on the Government's RIDDOR website.

Cause - The Iceberg Analogy

It is generally understood that 10% of an iceberg floats above the waterline whilst the 90% majority sits below. Using this iceberg analogy, we could liken an actual accident or incident to the upper 10%, with the 90% mass being classed as the cause.

When causes of incidents are analysed: of the 90% under the waterline, 10% is the failure of an individual, and the remaining 80% is the failure of the organisation.

80% - Organisational failures create the unsafe condition. Normally, a sequence of events, such as:

 High workload

 Inadequate experience or ability

 Inadequate supervision or instruction

 Conflicting goals

 Poor maintenance

 Poor communication

 Poor management control

10% - Individual failures create the unsafe act and are rarely intentional.

 Memory lapse

 Inattention to detail

 Carelessness

Five Steps

While it will primarily be the duty of the departmental managers or appropriately trained staff such as the Moving Assessment Support Team (MAST), Link Nurses, and others who have been given an assessment duty to perform, all employees can help and should understand the principles involved. Therefore we should all know how to apply the five steps of risk assessment.

Step 1

 Identify the hazard. Walk around your workplace and look at what could cause harm. Look back at old accident records and ill health records and see if you can identify hazards. Talk to your manager about any concerns you may have about your working environment or the system that you work to. Remember to think about long term hazards (e.g. high levels of noise or exposure to harmful substances.)

Step 2

 Decide who might be harmed and how. For each of the hazards you have identified in step 1, you need to think about who is at risk and what the outcome would be. For example, a worn carpet may be a small risk to fit and healthy staff with good eyesight, but to an elderly patient with poor mobility and bad vision this same hazard would be a major risk.

(Continued on next page....)

Five Steps (Continued)

Step 3Evaluate the risk and decide on precautions. The first things to ask are: Can we get rid of this hazard altogether? Can we simply work in a safer way? Does the area just need to be tidier or have a better layout? It is worth noting that most risk reduction actions are very simple and do not cost a lot. However, if it isn't easy, ask for help from the Trust's experts - the Health and Safety Department, who are happy to help and will be able to work with any department to help solve the more difficult assessments.

Step 4

 Record your findings and implement the actions. Writing down the risk assessment makes it simpler to share with the rest of your team and is also useful when it comes to reviewing the assessment. The written assessment can be used to ensure that the safe system remains in place and utilised.

Step 5

 Review your risk assessment and update if necessary. In the healthcare setting there is constant change, so the risk assessment will need to be reviewed regularly. This is clear when thinking about a people- handing risk assessment - as the patient's mobility changes we review the patient handling assessment to ensure that the person is being moved correctly. As the patient gets better, less help will be needed and the risk assessment needs to reflect this. People-handling risk assessments can change on a daily or even hourly basis.

Other risk assessments may be safe and sound for some years but should be checked at least annually to ensure that they are satisfactory. The rule is: if there is change, then reassess.

The Improvement Cycle

The importance of a Health & Safety Continual Improvement Cycle within our organisation cannot be underestimated.

The model helps to maximize improvement efforts by systematically studying data, exploring the implications for instruction, and modifying instruction to address these implications.

Everybody within our organisation can assist with this improvement process by remaining vigilant, focused, and reacting appropriately in any incident situation.

Please click here and then 'Open' to view the current Trust Policy on H&S.

The Top 10 Incidents

Here is a pie-chart graph detailing the types of incidents logged and recorded for the financial year 2006-7.

In particular, please note 3 of the top 5 incidents within the year 2006/7:

 Slip, trips and falls to patients

 Unsafe staffing levels

 Physical Assault + verbal Abuse.

It is your responsibility to advice colleagues, patients and visitors about potential risks.

If you don't, you could be setting them up for a fall.

Past Mistakes

When something goes wrong it doesn't mean we can't do that task, but we must think about how we do it, and do it safely. Learning from others' mistakes can save a lot of pain so fill in incident/accident forms!

The Incident Form

Click here followed by "open" to view the Incident Form Document

The Trust Incident/Accident form is available and used in all departments. If you have any difficulties completing this form, ask a colleague to assist you. If no one is available to help you or you are unsure, please call Health and Safety immediately and they will provide with assistance.

Get rid of the Risk

Get rid of the small risk, or the big risks may be missed.

If a department has poor risk control, the important risks can become hidden. So eliminate the simple hazards as soon as possible and reduce all other retained risks.

Take a look at the sign: What is the most important risk to know about?

Can you be too safe?

People say that you can't be too safe, but it is important that safety works well, remains robust and does not become so overbearing as to get in the way of service delivery.

Looking at the bicycle, there are 25 padlocks attached. To unlock all of these locks would be time consuming and inappropriate. Therefore you need to look for the best lock for the job and then the best position for the lock for optimum security. This would then be easy to operate and remain secure whilst being more likely to be used every time. If a system is user friendly, it will be used.

It is up to all of us to contribute to safe systems of work, to make them user-friendly and make the workplace a more secure and safe place to be.

What do I do now? –

Access Training Tracker to take your test

If you already have a username and password you can log into training tracker and start your test via this link http://iow.trainingtracker.co.uk that can be found on:

 Intranet Homepage  Learning Zone  E- Learning

To obtain a username and password, please contact Development & Training on extension 5409, and we will ensure that the details are e-mailed to you as soon as possible, usually within 24 hours.

If you have any difficulties with logging in please do not hesitate to contact us on the above number.

IF YOU DO NOT FEEL CONFIDENT USING A COMPUTER AND WOULD LIKE ONE TO ONE SUPPORT AND GUIDANCE PLEASE CONTACT US ON THE ABOVE NUMBER AND WE CAN ARRANGE FOR AN IT TRAINER TO HELP YOU TO LOG ON AND TAKE YOUR TEST

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