Risk Management in the Health and Social Care Workplace - Coursework Example

Health and Safety in the Health and Social Care Workplace Introduction Health and safety is an important aspect in any workplace as it reduces occupational accidents and occupational disease rates. Accidents could lead to serious injury or even death. Occupational health should aims to promote and maintain a very high degree of physical and mental well-being of workers, prevent death caused by working conditions and protect the workers from risks resulting from factors adverse to health. The workers should be protected from any health hazards that may arise from the working conditions (Stellman 1998). The Health and Safety at Work (HSWA) 1974 is legislated to ensure provision for securing health, safety and welfare of persons at work, for protecting others against risks to health or safety in connection with the activities of persons at work, for controlling the keeping and use and preventing the unlawful acquisition and use of dangerous substances, to make further provision with respect to the employment medical advisory service. Following a serious report issued by the Health and Safety Executive about the health and safety aspects in the North Staffordshire Trust the management has decided to appoint me to undertake the responsibility to ensure the appropriate health and safety conditions by reviewing the strategies and other relevant matters. L01- Implementation of health and safety legislation in the health and social care workplace A safety and health policy is an official written document by the management to embed safety and health in the organisations performance. A health and safety policy is important as it demonstrates commitment of the management to the employees’ health and safety, to outline both the management and employees responsibility for workstation health and safety, to show employees compatibility workplace and safety performance, and set out safety procedures to be followed in order to prevent workplace injuries. Implementing legislation of health and safety in a workplace should include policies that eliminate or reduce occupational injuries and diseases by ensuring elimination of hazards at a workplace, evaluation of non-avoidable hazards, curbing the source of the risks, and adapting the work to the employees by their physiological and psychological capabilities. The policies should have a general statement of intent in terms of health and safety. It should also include the duties and chain of command and lastly systems and procedures of work and information on their responsibilities (LaTourrette & Mendeloff 2008). As a newly appointed director, my role is to ensure health and safety in the healthcare setting and refer to failing about the health and safety by previous management such as lack of training of staff in relation to aspects of HASAWA, abuse, privacy, dignity and confidentiality of the clients and use of ICT equipment and manage human and financial resources. As a new director in the North Staffordshire Trust, to ensure effective communication, it is important to get acquainted to staff and colleagues, organise supervision, handing over and ensuring the communication book is signed by all staff. It is also vital that the induction and training systems to be reviewed. I should also ensure allocation of duties to staff in relation to health and safety, supervise and gather information, coordinate the appropriate information, supervise staff, assess the performance of staff through direct supervision and mentoring. The duties of a director involve attending various tasks involving staff and service users, organise and sponsor additional courses for staff to upgrade their level of performance. The health and safety policies notices were communicated incorrectly to the employees. The notices were placed in areas that were not visible to all people accessing the premises. The information was not readily comprehensible and did not take into consideration to the literacy levels of the workers. Some notices were even worn out and needed replacement. These health and safety policies and emergency procedures should be appropriately and effectively communicated to the employees by use of either verbal, written or graphic methods. They should equally be informed on preventive and protective measures in respect to work practice. The information should be comprehensible and readily understood to ensure the health and safety. This can be fully achieved by paying attention to literacy levels and language barriers. Responsibilities of staff should be shared between the management and staff. I had to understand the management of health and safety responsibilities in health and social care setting and assess the responsibilities in a specific health and social care work place for the management of health and safety in relation to organisational structure. I had to identify the responsibility of the Health and Safety Commission, the health and safety executive and members of the board and senior managers and the employees. The health and safety commission proposes new health and safety regulations to the secretary of state. The health and safety executive makes the act work on a day to day basis, gets involved in investigating major accidents and can enter premises and inspect without warning if they believed that regulations have been breached. After inspecting the premises, the inspectors give either an improvement or prohibition notice. The employers should comply with certain legal requirements, take out employer’s liability insurance, ensure that substances are stored safely and work equipment properly maintained. They must safeguard the health, safety and welfare of their employees and others who may be affected by work activity. The management established, implemented and maintained a system for communicating with employees and students about health and safety. It is the duty of both the management and employees to ensure safety at the workplace. It is vital for an organisation to enact clear health and safety policies which serve as guides so that everybody associated with the organisation is aware. The working environment is conducive and safe by carrying out a systematic risk assessment tests to ensure the workstations meet the minimum standards. In the assessment I took into account the tasks and activity involved the individual capability and working environment. The assessment tests should identify the hazards at the workstations and what harm they could cause, reviewing how the risks could be managed, taking actions that would limit the hazards and reviewing the effectiveness of the assessment. Establish safe work systems, and provide safe equipment and chemicals that included protective clothing. The workplace should be fully equipped with fire fighting equipment such as fire extinguishers and fire detectors and alarms in case of fire and explosions. The workstations should have adequate exit and emergency assembly points in case of fire. The workstations also require fire books, evacuation signs and evacuation equipment. In addition, the chemicals were classified, labelled, packaged and accompanied with useful information such as advice, precautions required and first aid instructions. Adequate and up to date first aid equipment should be provided. A qualified medical expert was always be available in case of an injury. The Health and Safety (First Aid) 1981 require employees to provide sufficient and appropriate equipment, facilities and medical personnel to ensure the employees receive prompt attention if they are injured or taken ill at work. According to the Medicines Act 1968, medicine should be administered by the right person, right medication, right dose, right route and the medical administration sheet always immediately after administering the mediation. Emergency procedures should also be put in place in case of emergencies and accidents. Medical and information records in particular are confidential and should be stored safely away from unauthorised access. Introduction of new technologies should first undergo consultation from the employees as regard to the sophistication of the equipment and working conditions and environment for safety of the employees. Consequences of introducing new technology should be considered. Temperature, ventilation and lighting should be ensured in workstations. During hot weather the temperatures could be regulated by air conditioning systems. This is part of the regulations that are provided under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. There should be adequate facilities such as washrooms which can be shared by both male and female in small organisations. There should also be cool drinking water and hygienic eating areas. Food should be kept in a refrigerator and freezer depending on the type of food. Expiry dates of food should be checked before consumption. Food should be cooked at required temperature and served at 65-75oC. As in case study one, the integrated health and safety management systems increased the opportunity to identify and manage risks resulting to incidence rates reducing by 16% over two years and insurance premiums reduced by 10%. These policies should be specific to the health challenges faced in the workplace. The policy should be stated in understandable and affirmative terms. These policies should be explained to the employees to avoid miscommunication. It is also mandatory that new employees be explained. Health and safety priorities are the most important aspects of health and safety to be observed when planning any health and social care services. The priorities must comply with health and safety legislations and many other regulations examples include RIDDOR, COSHH, fire precautions and first aid. Reporting of incidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences reporting (RIDDOR) include reporting all accidents, all incidences of ill health caused by work, accidents that could have resulted to injury or damage and violent incidences including verbal threats. L02-Impact of health and safety policy on clients and employees Health and safety is beneficial to an organisation’s productivity and emerging profits both directly and indirectly. The health and safety policy must cover all aspects of the organisation and should be relevant to all employees, size and activities of the organisation. In order to retain staff and maximize productivity it is important to implement safe practices. Health and safety policies ensure a sustainable social and economic development because they are directly linked to the productivity and profitability of the organisations (Fisher 2005). Protecting and promoting the health and well-being of the working population creates a healthier workplace and workforce which enhances the corporate reputation and image of an employer. Safety and health policies will provide early intervention to help prevent staff being absent for health-related reasons improving absence management and improved opportunities for people to recover from illness while at work. A poor health and safety culture will be faced by widespread procedural violations, failures of compliance with health and safety systems by the employers and employees. According to case study 2, Alice Belle, a 90 year old patient dies while being transferred from a commode to a bed using a large sling and a battery operated hoist led to the South Birmingham Crown Court being fined a total of £20,000 and pay costs of £17,500 at Birmingham Crown Court after pleading guilty. Policies involving moving and handling activities will ensure health and safety of the clients and employees are safeguarded because of the less risk of the occupational work related injuries. Positioning and lifting of equipment must be positioned and installed to reduce the risks. It should be properly planned by a competent person, supervised appropriately and carried out in a safe manner (Hughes & Ferrett 2011). Hospital expenses would be cut down since there will be fewer work related injuries. Poor manual handling operations cause both acute and chronic injuries to the employees. The management should ensure proper training, instruction and adequate information involving moving and handling tasks. Training is mostly required on commencement of employment, reassignment to a new duty, introduction of a new machine or equipment and inadequate performance. Training records should contain information on persons who attended the training, the topics covered and the date and venue of where the training took place. To minimize the risks it is the duty of employees to abide by the work practices laid down by the management. The employees should use mechanical aids in lifting, and most of all recognize the risk associated with manual handling. Employers are to provide a suitable conducive environment therefore should ensure sufficient lighting in the work area, there should be natural lighting and suitable and sufficient emergency lighting must be provided and clearance of the passage ways from any obstructions and ensuring that floors are even and stable to avoid slips and falls that may cause injury to the employees. Extremes of temperature and humidity are also environmental health hazards to the employees. Health and safety policies contribute to business developments since it supports human resource development; minimising the financial losses which arise from avoidable hazards, recognising that accidents, ill health and incidents result from failings in management control and are not necessarily the fault of individual employees, recognising that the development of a culture supportive of health and safety is necessary to achieve adequate control over risks, ensuring a systematic approach to the identification of risks and the allocation of resources to control them and supporting quality initiatives aimed at continuous improvement. Nevertheless the health and safety policies in the workplace can be faced with variety of dilemmas. Dilemmas are situations in which a choice must be made between alternative courses of action or argument. Dilemmas that can arise from a workstation include effectiveness of service and client privacy, client determination and obligation to prevent harm. Ethical dilemmas include whether it can be acceptable not to tell the truth, whether any form of restraint is possible, or how freedom of action can be balanced with the need to protect a patient from harm. Those facing dilemmas include, carers, professionals and care workers. In order to make decisions in case of an ethical dilemma, it is important to identify the problem, establish the nature and dimensions of the dilemma, generate a potential cause of action, and evaluate the selected option by referring to the impacts of the action and finally implementing the action. Reasons for certain dilemmas are reduced levels of capacity, changes in mood and behaviour in a person and increased vulnerability due to physical frailty, disorientation and memory problems. To solve an ethical dilemma critical judgement is needed as there is rarely one over-arching ethical value that can be used to solve the problem. For instance, telling the truth is an important moral value. However, if the circumstances would cause distress or anger because of the person’s cognitive problem, it is better to avoid or offer a partial answer to the person’s question. Compliance means adhering to requirements of health and safety policies enacted by the management to ensure safety of employees and clients in the premises. In health and social care, the management needs to understand the potential implications of a prosecution with an enforcement notice. Fines for most serious breaches of health and safety legislation and enforcement notices are costly due to payment of legal costs and those of prosecution. Noncompliance to safety and health legislation could lead to reputational damage. If a breach of health and safety law causes death, the organisation responsible may be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter or the individual responsible for gross negligence manslaughter. The organisation responsible is liable to fines and individuals for gross negligence manslaughter can face up life imprisonment. Employers, owners of premises and individual can be prosecuted for breaching health and safety requirement. When making the decision to prosecute health and safety breaches it is important to consider whether death was caused by the breach or if there has been a reckless disregard of health and safety requirements. L03-Monitoring and review of health and safety in the workplace In developing a health and safety policy, it should be ensured that the policies are practicable and written by people within the organisation since they know the operation of the institutions. The employees directly either individually or collectively or employees’ representatives should be consulted during developing the policy as they will be committed in complying with the policy. The policy should be set out in a manner that should be mandatory for the employees to comply with the requirements of the policy. The management should provide detailed information on risks to which the employees are exposed to and actions taken in case of emergencies. In improving health and safety the management should visit the workplaces often and identify areas that would be hazardous to the health of the employees. The management should also improve communication to all levels of the organisation and increase workforce participation in safety related problems. The goals for setting up for health and safety should ensure better health and safety for every worker, fair access to facilities, appropriate and responsive care delivery and high performance. In case study 3, it is established that the carpets made mobile patient hoist difficult to move especially when the patient is occupying the hoist , the wheels sank into the carpet. The hoist’s wheels were made from rubber which is suitable for smooth and hard floors. In this case it would be most suitable to do away with the carpet than the hoists. Representatives are required to have information on potential hazards and dangerous incidences and source of the occurrences, the employees’ complaints, carry out inspections after a certain period and attend meetings where they would notify the employers. The representatives are also required to assist the management in identification, implementation, and review of health hazards. They have a responsibility of encouraging the employees to adhere to safety and health procedures and assist in maintaining safety and effective risk management. Organisations with multiple activities should enact policies that include general issues and also detailed policies relating to the individual managers of the sites. The policy should be informed to the employees. This policy could be effectively communicated to the employees by posting it on the notice boards or near entrance to ensure the policy is brought to the attention of the employees. Regular reviews of performance should be monitored based on data. These reviews provide an opportunity to assess the overall performance of risk management control systems and identify individuals who are susceptible. These policies should also be reviewed and revised as often as possible. The evaluation of the safety organisation may be made where the process questions are measured against a set of standards. Auditing is achieved by interviewing individuals, examining documents and visual observation. Monitoring can be achieved by performing regular checks and inspections. The records of inspection of the training should have information on the officer who inspected the premises, the date of the inspection, any areas that would be dangerous to the employees. Effective monitoring can be achieved through review of management reports and investigation of accidents (Rooney et al. 2008). Review of health results is the integral part of the management process since it provides an opportunity to analyse the performance of the risk management control and identify susceptible individuals. An effective review enables to establish if the risks management has been practicable or controlled and determine if new control measures should be put in place. Review should address the types of methods and systems that are used to measure and monitor the prevalence and incidence, trends and distribution of occupational disease and injury and future plans in place to develop injury surveillance systems (Cole 2004). Review of systems and policies should include care planning. Care planning will enable that a suitable strategy is enacted to implement the health and safety policies. The care plan will enable the goals and outlines of the organisation achieved. Monitoring and review enables an organisation to update procedures and policies and learn from past hazardous occurrences. Own practice is vital in implementing health and safety procedures. Own contribution includes the worker ensuring responsibility of own and other employees health and safety. It involves abiding to health and safety, using machines properly while avoiding misuse of the protective gear.. Employees should use systems and procedures correctly and report any flaws that may arise in the accident (Dalton 1998). It is the responsibility of employees to ensure they use systems and procedures of work correctly and report any damage on machinery and equipment. The employees should also report any incidences such as people acting suspiciously in the premises. The employee should also be aware of the hazards that could be related to work. Both employees and visitors accessing the premises could be source of hazards when they use poor handling procedures or indulge in aggressive behaviour such as abuse or bullying. To establish suitable policies, evaluation of the tasks should be priority. This would involve identifying areas where accidents occur frequently, areas with potential for severe injuries, and less frequent performed tasks such as maintenance of machines. The employees should always check risk assessments that have been performed in the premises before undertaking any tasks and follow the steps identified in the assessment to reduce injury to themselves and other employees. In order to maintain health and safety in an organisation the employee should attend any training offered by the facility to make them competent. Employee should know health and safety regulation and how to implement them. It is evident that implementation of safety legislation in the health and social care workplace is an all-inclusive thing. Both the employer and employees take part in ensuring that theses legislations are followed. The health and safety needs have a positive aspect on clients and the work of practitioners in the health and social care workplace as they avail a positive environment for all. Though monitoring and review of health and safety in the health and social care workplace is done by inspectors, it is the duty of every stake holder to ensure that the health and safety in the workplace is up to date and serves the right purpose. In order to ensure health and safety in a workplace, I have to ensure I take care of my health and safety of my co-employees. It is my duty to co-operate with my employer on health and safety, properly use equipment provided keeping in mind my training and instructions. I should report any health and safety hazards. I should attend training organised by the management to ensure am competent in the workplace. Safety training enables me as an employee to improve safety awareness and promote proper safety procedures. It is my responsibility to maintain confidentiality of the clients even when informing other colleagues. Bibliography Boyd, C., 2013. Human Resource Management and Occupational Health and Safety. s.l.:Routledge. Cole, G. A., 2004. Personnel and human resource management. 5th ed. London: Thomson Learning. Dalton, A., 1998. Safety, health and environmental hazards at the workplace. London: Cassel. Fisher, A., 2005. Health and social care. Oxford: Heinemann. Hughes, P. & Ferrett, E., 2011. Introduction to health and safety at work: the handbook for the NEBOSH National General Certificate. 5th ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. LaTourrette, T. & Mendeloff, J. M., 2008. Mandatory workplace safety and health programs: implementation, effectiveness, and benefit-cost trade-offs. Santa Monica: Rand Corporation. Phil Hughes & Ferrett, E., 2013. International Health and Safety at work: for the NEBOSH International General Certificate. Second ed. s.l.:Routledge. Rooney, T., Podger, G. & Hackitt, J., 2008. The Role of the Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive in workplace health and safety. 2nd ed. s.l.:The Stationery Office. Stellman, J. M., 1998. Encyclopaedia of occupational health and safety. Fourth ed. Geneva: International Labour Office. Read More