NHS East Midlands – occupational health
| Company name | NHS East Midlands |
|---|---|
| Sector | Public health |
| Number of employees | Over 11,500 |
| Type of workforce | Health professionals and administrators |
What issue was the organisation facing?
Back problems and musculoskeletal disorders remain the major cause of sickness absence in the NHS. The NHS Employers' Back in Work campaign is part of an endeavour to encourage employers to take a pro-active approach in managing this problem. As such, this was a particular problem for NHS East Midlands.
The merger of the three major acute hospitals in the Leicester area brought together three differing approaches to manual handling. As a result of lack of resource and clarity over the position of the service within the new organisation, the Trust soon faced serious deficiencies in the planning and provision of the manual handling service.
What action did the organisation take?
A five-year business plan was devised, based on the principle that a safer handling culture is rooted in risk assessment.
The identification of key success factors, such as the appointment of an Assistant Director for Risk, have assisted with implementation and the manual handling service now occupies a clear position in the trust's organisational structure. The team has grown to include seven members of staff and resource allocation has been clearly identified, with £900,000 having been spent on safer handling equipment and systems.
In place of centralised and 'off the shelf' programmes, risk assessment has been used to inform individual department training programmes. The practice of generic risk assessment was improved by involving managers to identify risks to their staff caused by practice, speciality, environment and equipment (common manual handling risks from patient handling were dealt with separately). Information is used to inform future developments and the manual handling team is now involved at 'grass roots' level decisions, such as commissioning and refurbishment planning and equipment purchasing.
Finally, it was critical that the Manual Handling Service show safer handling strategies were having a demonstrable effect on reducing musculo-skeletal injury. Measures include a purposed built training database, database for all manual handling equipment, protocols for reporting manual handling related incidents, and regular audits.
What has been the impact of implementing health interventions?
By adhering to the principle that a safer handling culture is rooted in risk assessment, the manual handling team at University Hospital Leicester has been successful in embedding a culture of safer handling in the trust, with a reported 31% reduction in reported manual handling incidents for the year 2004/05.
Other outcomes have included:
- the provision of equipment, such as electric profiling beds, patient chairs, trolleys, examination couches and pressure relieving systems for safe practice in all areas of operation
- relevant and up-to-date audit and quality assurance systems
- project development and research in partnership with local inventors
- the most highly rated session on the Trust's induction programme over the last three years.