Occupational Health in the United Kingdom - Essay Example

Occupational Health Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecturer Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 21st May, 2012. Introduction Occupational health (OH) problems have been one of the biggest challenges faced not only by governments, employees and employers but also by trade unions all over the globe. The employee absence in work places and the related increase in cost for treating the diseases have raised concern to both employers and the government, and the two have recognized the need to respond (Andreev, McKee & Shkolnikov, 2003). The issues by these organizations are whether the responses articulated are adequate in dealing with the scale of the problem. The problems are addressed by implementing policies and frameworks in order to mitigate them and support workers who in one way or another have suffered due to ill health. In UK, the demography of the working population has of late changed due to health related issues. It therefore calls for all the stakeholders in the working environment to participate in curbing the problems and minimizing the direct effect associated with them. Occupational health services in UK is best delivered to ensure that there is equality of access to medical covers to all workers and solving the cases that may arise due to absenteeism in work place due to ill health of workers (Decressin & Fatás, 1995) The recent economic changes on occupational health in the UK Over the last three decades, UK economy has grown due to openness of the economy. However, recent involvement and development of global economy in the financial sector has led to economic down turn of not only UK but also economies of other countries. The economic crisis has led to increased amount of people with ill health among the United Kingdom workers due to increased level of unemployment and job insecurity (Williamson et al, 1964). These uncertainties have made people to engage in unhealthy lifestyles such as drinking and smoking which in one way or another are contribute to ill health. In addition, the economic down turn may force employers to focus on other things hence neglecting improving workplace environment which can lead to work related illness (Nazroo, 1997). Nevertheless, continuous support to employees’ health makes the UK employers have a competitive edge over other counterpart with poor health since healthy workers promote productivity. Over the next 15 years, the UK economy is expected to weather past the recent economic crisis since the drivers of economy in UK will not be affected during this period. This will contribute to the health of the nation in the sense that more workers will be employed in the public sector which will make workers to have psychological health than physical health (Saltman & Figueras, 1997). Moreover, the employment will make workers to improve their living standards consequently improving their health. The economy will facilitate for more knowledge to produce benefits associated with it and due to increase in new ideas, relationship and software. These changes will lead to better working conditions, work ethics and practices. As mentioned above, the economy of every country depends with the productivity of its population. The improved infrastructure and improved health are the biggest drivers of economy. The recent economic changes on occupational health in UK include but not limited to; improved infrastructure that contribute to well-being of the working population in the sense that, the working conditions and environment is maintained to the required standards (Bain, Taylor & Baldry, 1999). Education system in the UK has improved to cater for provision of required skills in the work place. Education as economic driver may affect the level of income earned by the worker hence shaping his lifestyle. Moreover, the UK government is improving its budget to fund medical clinics and hospitals in the aim of improving health. Healthy working population hence increasing productivity and time frame an individual is in the work force before retire. In order to improve competition in its workforce, UK government through the EU government has passed a policy to maintain workers longer in the workforce. In this regard, Lisbon Agenda, Healthy Life Years is used as an indicator of competition by EU governments (Saltman & Figueras, 1997). The emerging trends in occupational ill health The structure of health care and occupational health in UK is rapidly changing. Characterized by the 21st century advancements and globalization, health care face is being affected by more than one factor for the better. For instance, any decision affecting the health of workers anywhere in the world can affect the structure of UK health care. For example, when health workers in South Africa were infected by HIV/AIDS due to needle stick injuries and their medication restricted it affected the decisions made by OH officials all over the world. In addition, globalization has made doctors and nurses to move from other home countries to foreign countries in search of green pastures. This has contributed to the shortage of doctors and nurses in UK medical hospitals (Decressin & Fatás, 1995). Furthermore, technology advancement in medical facilitates and equipment has aided in providing medical services to persons with ill health associated with occupation. The UK government budgeting strategies has also changed. The money allocated to cater for medical services improvement and to compensate persons with ill health have been increased. Traditionally, the issues relating to working conditions and the ill health of workers has been marginalized not only in UK but all over the world. In most of the countries, the provision of occupational health services has been addressed to cater only for male workers which resulted to risk to health of female worker (GMB, 2000) Finally, the trend in ill health associated with occupation as taken a U-turn due to the dramatic increase in health technologies in diagnosis and treatment of ill health. It has also triggered new methods of and new service provision opportunities since it is expensive (Castles, 2000). The UK government and OH services are looking for alternative ways to offer specialized diagnosis and treatment using the cheapest possible means. In relation to ageing population and as much as the government and employers are trying to increase the working period of ageing population, the cost associated with implementing the strategies and rehabilitating the elderly is pulling their efforts down. The impact of changes in industrial structures and labour markets on the health of workers Changes in the labour market and new enterprise structures in the industrial organization present challenges and difficulties which may threaten ways in which occupational health issues are addressed. There is a problem solving system implemented at one corner and a safety and health problem somewhere else (Taylor & Bain, 2001). The changing patterns of employment in UK have been a common concern to both government and the employers. Over the last ten years, UK industrial organization has been affected by the following factors; Collapsing and privatisation of large organizations such as railways, airline, water supply and telecommunication not forgetting the energy sector. Liberalization of market formerly conquered by large organizations. Large institutions both in public and private sector down-sizing to meet the market demands and pressure from the government policies. Change of management in the industrial organizations hence not meeting the required capacity to handle contingency issues. The changing technology in information which enable workers to work way from workplace hence offering possibilities to relocate from one country to another. Dramatic increase in employment in distribution in industrial organizations hence moving way the traditional areas of employment which include mining and heavy manufacturing. The need for 24 hours economy which is forced by market competition and demand and Globalization. Collapsing of large organizations and privatisation of others has made workers to change their positions in the workforce, to lose jobs and worse still, suffer stress emanating from the mentioned unfairness (Bain, Taylor & Baldry, 1999). The impacts mostly come in when the income structures of the worker are changed more so decreasing. Liberalization of large industrial structures has forced organizations to change their working environment which affect workers health. Again, policies by UK government to organizations to improve their working conditions and environment have improved the health of workers both in private and public sectors. Moving away from the traditional form of employment which exposed workers to harmful environment and substance has reduced the number of cases of ill health associated with work (Bain, Taylor & Baldry, 1999) Technology on the other hand has both positive and negative impacts. On the positive note, technology has helped medical practitioners in diagnosis and treatment of diseases though is prohibitively expensive. Information technology has made workers to work from home hence reducing cases of occupational health (Dormont, 2005). For instance, online writing has offered job to many UK graduates which make them work from the comfort of their home. In addition, software development has enabled engineers to develop robots which can work in ‘tough’ environments where human-being cannot. On the other hand, technology comes with negative impact in workers’ health. For example, an increased application of robot in organization has led to unemployment of workers. Finally, globalization has led to change in labour market in the sense that, it is calling for global marketing hence increasing pressure on workers to work for long hours which led to fatigue hence ill health (Taylor & Bain, 2001). The changes in the enterprise structure have also impacted on the health of the worker in UK. Enterprise structure has moved from the traditional model to modern model. The traditional model required organizations to operate everything within the organization by its workers. However, the modern model requires organizations to outsource some of their operations to other competent organizations (Garrett & Martini, 2007). These makes workers in a certain organizations to be exempted some of their duties and given to other competent workers of another organization to cater for well-being of the host organization. The impact of changes in demography on the health of workers Migration, ageing and fertility are the biggest determinant of demography of the workforce and affect the nature of occupational health. In the past the average age of workforce risen from 39 to nearly 40 years. In this case, age is associated with more than one common illness so the amount of ill health in the UK workforce has significantly risen (Smedley, Dick & Sadhra, 2007). The increase in the number of workers with long term illness that require specialized treatment is due to the ageing population dominating the workforce. This has affected the nature of work the persons with long term illness do. The employers are trying to support workers manage their condition while still in the work place. The health of UK workers will has deteriorated due to increased burden of supporting the ageing and retired population. In addition, age and ill health are closely linked to the number of diseases. The ageing workforce characterising UK has led to increase absenteeism and need for interventions to target specific needs for old people. Contrary, productivity level in UK has increased due to older people being satisfied with the job. With the increased dependency ratio among the UK population, the health of workers is becoming more important than ever before (Dormont, 2005). This has demanded workers to call for outside work and more opportunities for flexible working. The employers after meeting these demands have seen the benefits since workers with caring responsibilities tend to attend to work more seriously. The number of women in the workforce has increased in UK. The impact of this is that, women tend to have more sickness related levels of absence in the workplace than their men counterpart regardless of little or no differences in health. This comes about due to the fact that women have more responsibility of caring for young children. In summary, Occupational health challenges have called for UK employees and employers to seek for long term care provision. The population demography like ageing population affect the occupational health measures to mitigate the problems in the sense that most of the aged population are associated with ageing illness that will make them be absent in their working places (Taylor & Bain, 2001). Consequently, the employees productivity will go down which will reflect in the economy of the country. The problems associated with Occupational Health. According to international journal of occupational and environmental health, there are many occupational illnesses in the world today regardless of the advancement in technology and changes in the labour market (Decressin & Fatás, 1995). These problems are attributed to new jobs and new methods which do not recognize most the occupational diseases that are now leading to long-term illness. These occupational diseases include musculoskeletal disorders, asthma, job related stress illness, noise–induced hearing loss and others. It is in the mandate of trade unions to identify this occupational ill health. The trade unions failure to recognize work related illnesses of workers have made them to continue to suffer. Any occupational health service is taken as a real asset. Its obligations are to identify health problems and offer rehabilitation to sick or injured persons who have suffered such illness in the line of duty. It also acknowledges persons with disabilities. A properly working (OHS) is in most cases viewed as a multi-disciplinary service which caters for prevention and the ill health and changing the working places that are not well designed (Decressin & Fatás, 1995) . The interventions are also designed to deal with individuals and the age of the working population. The OHS should involve doctors and health nutritionist and others who are experts in rendering services like designers and engineers. The economy of UK has greatly changed due to new emerging fields of work which have changed the traditional manufacturing and primary sector industries and the emergence of a number of new flourishing fields of activity. For example in UK, wales and North East of England has been associated with traditional employment in mining industries. This makes UK OHSs to have more changes and spend more in dealing with such issues (Castles, 2000). For UK it offers occupational health services in form of employment medical advisory service (EMAS). This puts UK way from statutory occupational health services due to the demographic characteristic of the country. Founded in 1973, EMAS operate on occupational health matters which act as a replacement of the former system of medical inspectors and appointed factory doctors. The EMAS constitute of both doctors and nurses who offer medical advice associated with work and works together with other organizations like the trade unions. The organization has the same legal mandate and obligations with organizations like the nursing and health services. Their primary goal is to treat individuals who have suffered illness through direct or indirect contact with health risk in their working places leading to absenteeism. Most of these institutions are characterized with ailed governance systems which makes them one of the biggest problems with occupational health in UK (Dormont et al, 2005). Critically evaluate OH strategies for reducing the impact of work upon health. There are several strategies put in place by OH for mitigating the impacts of work on health. One, social inequality in health has been greatly addressed in the sense that social class determine life expectancy and infant mortality rates. For example, a construction worker is more vulnerable to ill health associated with occupation than construction manager. In addition, deteriorating working environment is warranting due to socio-economic factors i.e. diet, poor housing and provision of health care. This factor comes about mostly to unemployed population making them develop stress and other illness including violence. In UK the factors have indicated that the gap between life expectancy and infant mortality rate of the employed persons have widened (Oakley, 2002) The research by Whitehall Civil Service confirmed that the relationship between social class, nature of work and ill health have a strong correlation. High ranked jobs with good wages will yield high class and good health provisions. Low ranked works with little pay with result to low social class and ill health. The UK OH is looking into this factor by campaigning for good pay to workers so as to elevate their life style hence few cases of ill health. Also, the government has come up with policies that will facilitate for good living standards and health medical schemes. Finally the OH is geared to pass the message of employing young tasks and offering early retirements so as to avoid ill health of elderly workers (Johnstone & Quinlan, 1993). Two, the UK government is supporting OHS providers with the goal of achieving the ill health elements. The government through these agencies is working to see to it that appropriate and necessary measures are taken to reduce the number of days lost due to work related illness. The persons with disability and those with ill health are in one way or another being made aware of possible rehabilitation so that they go back to work as soon as possible. In addition, the government is creating additional job opportunities to cater for the unemployed population within the country which; as stated above will elevate the living standards thus good provision of health facilities (Oakley, 2002). The government strategies comes in five elements namely; compliance, continuous improvement, knowledge, skills, and finally support. For compliance, the government aims at improving the laws governing OH and ensure that the laws are followed. Continuous improvement requires the government to develop culture of togetherness in dealing with occupational health issues. This will be achieved by involving employees and their representatives in decision making process of OH issues. Knowledge comes about in collecting sufficient information from the workers and analysing it in order to make changes to the underlying issues. This data will enable the government to tackle the problem in the OH department (Rowthorn, 2000). Skill is for increasing the opportunities to persons in the work place to be able to deal with occupational health issues. The trade unions and other selected workers are given the mandate of educating the working population (Johnstone & Quinlan, 1993). Finally, government is working to offer support to the Occupational Health Advisory in implementing their recommendations. Other strategies require the community based projects to advice and rehabilitate both the infected and the affected persons. The sensitising process should ensure that the occupational health risks are detected early enough so that the necessary measures can be taken hence mitigate the problems. Finally the government is introducing new policies designed to ensure that the retired population (aged population) are compensated accordingly to enable them seek medical attention whenever need arises (DH, 2004). Proposals for mitigating the negative effects of work on health One of the proposal put forward requires that adequate response by health systems be enacted so as to improve the both physical and mental health of the old people hence enable them to stay long in the work place (Castles, 2000). The proposal can be achieved by improving medical services and admissions so as to encourage aged people to maintain their physical health and health eating habits. Due to the increasing number of chronic condition associated with old age, there is a need to increase provision of medical care both in social and economic terms so as to mitigate the problems (Smedley, Dick & Sadhra, 2007). Another proposal is that, medical services should be brought closer to the people mostly the ageing population by having paramedics to taking their services to the homes of the aged people with ill health (Rowthorn, 2000). By so doing, the aged people will feel comfortable at home where they are been care for by their relatives and consequently reducing the hassle relating to admissions in medical facilities. Moreover, since ageing process is gradual and in a stepwise manner; ageing persons should be admitted in rehabilitation institutions where they will not only receive treatment for their ill health but also be trained on how to life healthy. While in the rehab, the aged people with ill health should be encourage on eating healthy diet which is known to improve their physical and mental status. Third proposal is that, there is a need to for education to all persons in relation to better self-care. This can be achieved by use of technology i.e. computer and internet to offer prescriptions. This will enable persons with ill health to access medical services easily. Such intervention will ease mobility of sick persons hence reducing the stress of moving from one corner to another in search of medical services (Smedley, Dick, & Sadhra, 2007). The last but not least proposal is that, there is a need to enhance prevention through population based interventions. If the working environment is maintained at its optimum, the ill health risks will be mitigated and there will be minimal if no cases of ill health relating to occupation. Finally, it is worth noting that even if the proposals are followed to the letter, there will be some exceptional cases come about from the occupation health. This is because of the dynamic nature of the world we live in and the ever changing environment. Again, the working conditions are changing depending with the nature of task and the exposure to hazardous substances (GMB, 2000). Conclusion In conclusion, UK occupational Health Services has been characterised by shortfalls and problems that are both environmental and occupational. From the discussions, it is clear that OHS providers have an important role in mitigating these problems through prevention and management of occupational ill health so that UK population can be better placed and prepared when faced with occupational health issues. In addition, the UK government has increased the number of OHS providers with the aim of supporting its economy by increasing the productivity of its working population. Finally, the UK demography and the nature of work have been changed to change the populations’ lifestyle, which will eventually minimize the number of diseases affecting the working population in their workplaces. It is worth noting that, though these measures have been put in place, there will still be occupational ill health due to the dynamic nature of working conditions and exposure. Bibliography Arber, S & Ginn, J (1990).The meaning of informal care: gender and the contribution of older people. Ageing and Society. Vol.12, pp. 429–54. Avies, A., Smeeth, L & Grundy E (2007) .Contribution of changes in incidence and mortality to Trends in the prevalence of coronary heart disease in the UK: 1996–2005. European Heart Journal. 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