NHS guide a ‘welcome tool’

The NHS staff council has published the revised Workplace health and safety standards guide to support NHS organisations in meeting their legal duties to protect staff from injury and illness.

The standards have been jointly agreed by NHS Employers and unions and the HSE helped in the development of the revised standards. The foreword to the guide points to “the strong evidence linking patient safety … and the quality of care with the safety, health and wellbeing of the workforce”. The standards are recognition that more needs to be done to protect NHS staff from the many causes of work-related injury and ill health.

The guide includes chapters on important issues to health staff such as musculoskeletal disorders and manual handling, management of sharps, radiation and work-related stress.

Robert Baughan, UNISON national officer for health and safety, said the standards will be “a welcome tool” for health branches in discussions with their employers.

www.nhsemployers.org/Aboutus/Publications/Documents/workplace-health-safety-standards.pdf