Establishment and Maintenance of Work Health Safety Management System (WHSMS) in Healthcare

This article discusses the establishment and maintenance of Work Health Safety Management System (WHSMS) in the healthcare industry. It covers the key objectives of WHSMS, steps for establishment, maintenance procedures, risk assessment, and relevant WHS Acts, regulations, and codes of practice.

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Healthcare
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliate
Date

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Introduction
Work Health Safety Management System (WHSMS) is critical for any particular workplace to
ensure that the safety of the employees is guaranteed to them. IT generally offers a framework,
procedures, plans and plans aimed at management of safety and health of various workers in the
workplace. There are various key objectives of the WHSMS such as the provision of a
framework for compliance with the legislative requirements, the creation of safer workplaces and
enhancement of the workers' morale, reduction of incidents and injuries in the workplace and
enhancing of efficiency among others. It can, therefore, be concluded that WHSMS focuses on
ensuring that the safety and health of employees in a workplace are provided by the employers.
The paper seeks to analyse the establishment, maintenance, implementation and assessment of
the Work Health and Safety Management System by the Australian Hardware and this mainly for
their Hobart, Tasmania Store.
Assessment Task One
Activity One
Establishment of WSH
There are three typical steps which are to be used to develop a WHS by the Australian
Hardware, and they are as follows;
Location and Communication of the Policies of WHS.
Such policies should aim at stating clearly the commitment of the hardware to
compliance with the legislation of the WHS. The model WHS laws which had been established
by the Safe Work Australia for every particular state should be implemented by the Australian
Hardware. The model entails, Work Health and Safety Regulations 2012, Work Health and
Safety Act 2012 and Workers' Relief Fund Act 1954 (Vatani et al.,2016). Also, during the

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establishment of WHSMS, the consultation process of the WHS should be taken into account
which includes, identification of the duty holders and workers, identification of various
communication channels, development of health and safety committee and the establishment of
health and safety representatives. Moreover, the establishment process of the WHS will entail
taking into consideration the key communication strategies such as reporting of hazard, notice
boards, provision of information during the staff inductions, registration of injuries books,
consultation meetings of WHS and company newsletters.
Identification of the Duty Holders and Defining of the Responsibilities of WHS
The various duty holders as specified in the WHS Acts are officers, a person conducting
business, workers and any other individual in the workplace. The above mentioned persons
should be considered during the establishment of the Australian Hardware. The other duty
holders could be trainees, volunteers, employees and the contractors. Apart from the
identification of the duty holders, the key responsibilities should also be identified such as;
 Compliance with the instructions provided by the PCBU to abide by the WHS Act.
 Taking care of own safety and health
 Cooperating with the policies and procedures of the PCBU concerning work safety and
health
The roles and responsibilities of any other person in the workplace should also be
considered, and they entail, compliance with the instructions provided by persons conducting
business or undertaking and taking care of own safety and health (Scanlon et al., 2015).
Moreover, the responsibilities of the senior executives making viable decisions which affect a
business or an undertaking should be taken into account during the establishment of WHS. Such
responsibilities include the provision of better sustainability and enhancement of the

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performance of WHS, ensuring that there is compliance of the business or undertaking with
obligations and duties as required in the WHS Act and ensuring due diligence in matters relating
to WHS responsibilities in the organization. After the identification of the roles and
responsibilities of various individuals in the workplace, they should be documented. The
documentation is to be done in WHS manual, WHS procedures, WHS policy, tender documents
and handbooks for the contractors and workers.
Identification and Approval of Finance Required for WHSMS
The key purpose of finance entails development of procedures and policies of the WHS,
conducting WHS audits by identification of some of the key elements of WHS that should be
tackled, the arrangement of inspections of hazards and establishment of the recording system, a
test of equipment. The machinery so that it works based on the safety and health standards and
making sure that all the workers are given necessary training and guidance (Sanz-Calcedo et al.,
2015).
Identification and Approval of the Human Resources Required by WHS
According to Sujan et al.,(2016), during the establishment of the WHS by the Australian
Hardware, the staff members who should be taken into account include, workers, health and
safety representatives, supervisors, management and senior staff members, health and safety
committees, WHS advisors and specialists and the customers, contractors and suppliers among
others.
Maintenance of WHS by the Australian Hardware
There are various steps and procedures which should be followed by the organization to
maintain the WHS. Such steps entail the following;

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Setting Up and Maintenance of Participation Arrangements based on Legislation of WHS
Upon setting up the participation arrangements on the basis of the WHS legislation, the
Australian Hardware should ensure that the employees participate through a number of ways as
indicated below;
 Equipment maintenance
 Training and Induction programs
 Personal protective equipment
 Attendance of meetings aimed at encouraging the sharing of various perspectives on
matters relating to WHS.
 Supervision of the less experienced business visitors and other colleagues
 Reporting of hazard and incident
 Following job instructions and procedures.
The establishment of the participative arrangement comes and in hand with certain
benefits which should be considered by the Australian Hardware to maintain the WHS. The
benefits are, promotion of increased trust, openness and respect between the workers and
management by the creation of understanding, enhancing of decisions of management in regards
to health and safety and allows different employees to offer a variety of suggestions on
addressing problems relating to health and safety (Rachid, Ion, Irina & Mohamed, 2015).
The other benefits are that it aids in reducing disease and injury due to timely
intervention and helping the person conducting business or undertaking to be aware of the health,
safety and hazard matters which workers experience (Podgórski, 2015). To maintain the WHS,

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the Australian Hardware can carry out the training sessions using the internal training personnel,
WHS management specialists and external training personnel. There are also various aspects of
the WHS training which should be taken into account by the organization such as risk
management, maintenance of work-life balance, getting WHS help when required, safe operation
of the equipment which is relevant to their work role and personal protective equipment.
Resolving of Issues Identified through Participation Arrangement and Consultation
According to Pęciłło (2016), the key steps which are involved in the resolution process of
various issues which have been identified during the participation and consultation include;
 Bringing into attention the identified issues to the line manager in charge of the work
area.
 The identified issue could also be resolved promptly in case that is possible
 Prior to obtaining a long term solution which is to be enforced, a temporary solution
should be identified and implemented by the officers in charge of the organization.
 The HSRs could issue a provision improvement notice and order work cessation
especially in a life-threatening situation.
 The risk and hazard management process should be complied by the long term resolution
of issues.
 A record should be kept.
Provision of Information on the Outcomes of Participation and Consultation
According to Maguire (2017), the WHS issue resolution process can be recorded by the
organization using various records such as risk registers, inspection and audit records, written
summaries, emails, reports and minutes on issue resolution action plans and meeting of minutes
among others. Besides the records of the outcomes of the participation and consultation, there are

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various ways of communicating the outcomes which should be taken into account by the
Australian Hardware. Such ways include the use of translators and interpreters, taking part in the
team and individual meetings, provision of presentations, the offering of reports, memos, emails,
written summaries and letters and the presentation of the issue resolution findings to the relevant
health and safety committee.
Activity Three
Establishment and Maintenance Procedures for Identification of Hazards and Assessment
and Control of Risks
According to et Zhou t al.,(2016), there are various types of hazards which should be
considered by the organization such as radiation, chemical, physical, biological, ergonomic and
psychological. Further, the procedures for the identification of the risks entails;
 Brainstorming which involves conversing with the employees prior to the setting of tasks
to be conducted
 Provision of training to ensure that the workers become aware of the various common
hazards
 Making available the hazard reporting forms to all the employees
 Conducting safety audits and inspection of the workplace regularly
 Review of the current workplace audits
 Evaluation of the work system
Circumstances, when the risk evaluation is done, include, when there is unusual poor
work performance, occurrence of changes at the workplace, uncertainty on the means by which a
hazard may cause illness or injury and when there are many different hazards involved in a
particular work activity (Loeppke et al.,2015). The above mentioned situations for carrying out a

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risk assessment should be considered by the Australian Hardware during the establishment of the
WHS.
Significance of Risk Assessment
The evaluation of risk in a workplace comes with a variety of benefits as indicated below;
It aids in;
 Identification of factors which result in the risk
 Evaluation of the severity of the risk
 Analysis of the possibility of occurrence of a risk
 Identification of records to be kept for control and elimination of risks
 Identification of the action to be taken to control a particular risk
 Identification of the urgent needs to be taken to eliminate a risk
Risk Control Measures
There are three levels of a hierarchy of risk control. At level 1, the risks are controlled
through the elimination of the hazards. In level 2, the risk is controlled by reduction of the risks
using engineering controls, isolation of hazards from people and substitution of the hazard with
something safer (Kim, Park & Park, 2016). Lastly, at level 3, risk control is done by the use of
personal protective equipment and reduction of exposure to the hazard by use of administrative
actions. The three levels mentioned should be considered by the Australian Hardware to help in
the control of risks in their new store.
Identification and Action on Requirements for WHS Expert Advice
WHS advice should be provided in various circumstances such as during the introduction
of new workers when making physical changes in the workplace, an introduction of new

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legislation, carrying out of organizational reviews of WHS and inadequacy of risk controls
(Wager, Lee & Glaser, 2017).
Evaluate and Measure WHSMS Needs
It is usually critical for an organization to monitor and measure various aspects of its
activities and operations. It entails, a review of requirements for elements such as waste disposal,
relevant legislation, radioactive sources as well as operations of a building which are all under
WHS.The measurement and evaluation process entails a number of steps such as corrective and
preventive action, workplace inspections, records management, WHS management system audit
and last the management reviews the implementation of the various needs of WHSMS.
Activity Four
Portfolio of Documents
According to Gholami et al., (2015), the WHS record keeping of the Australian Hardware
should relate to hazards and incident report forms, inspections and audit reports, induction,
training and instruction records and consultations which entails, work team meeting agendas and
meeting of safety and health committees. Additionally, the records of WHS should be done
based on the relevant legislation, and this should be in regards to;
 Monitoring of environment
 Equipment and plant testing and maintenance reports
 Rehabilitation and workers’ compensation records
 Supplier and manufacturer information such as dangerous goods storage lists
The Australian Hardware should also aim at maintaining the WHS records on the basis of
the relevant legislation. Consequently, there will be a need for the management to make certain
decisions in regards to the records such as who will be responsible for the maintenance of the

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records, the records which should be kept, how the records should be filed and the records to
keep (Boustras et al.,2015). Other decisions include the time the records should be retained and
how to dispose of the records of the WHS. Additionally, the WHSMS should be monitored, and
this is to be done in line with the quality systems framework of the organization.
The Australian Hardware should ensure that the review takes into account various aspects
such as audits, objectives, WHS policy, legislation and WHS reports (Yazdani et al., 2015).
During the measuring and evaluation of the WHS, there are certain activities which are to be
conducted such as carrying out of health checks, verifying the training needs, review of the types
and number of hazard and incident reports provided, carrying out of workplace audits and
inspections (Duckett & Willcox, 2015). Other activities could include, conduction of regular
discussions and meetings to address safety and health matters and monitoring of the existing
WHS procedures and policies to make sure that they are up dated with the existing legislation.
Assessment Task Two
Identify and detail relevant WHS Acts, regulations and codes of practice
The WHS Acts include, the Workplace Health Act 2011, while the regulations used for
the WHS is the Work Health and Safety Act 2012.The code of practice on the other hand used is
the TAS Codes of Practice.

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Specify relevant WHS organisational policies, procedures, programs and practices
The relevant WHS policies and procedures include, conflict resolution, rehabilitation
policy, housekeeping procedures, manual handling and workplace bullying as well as harassment
policy. The above mentioned policies and procedures can be found in the manual as well as an
organization’s intranet.Moreover,there are certain key principles relating to the WHS procedure
and policy such as auditing and planning, communication and consultation, commitment and
accountability, emergency plans and WHS reporting, performance monitoring. The other
principles are, skill development and training, system implementation and resource requirement
and modifications and change. Also, there are various codes of practice which offers
information reference and recommendations for best practice in an organization.Generally,the
code of practice tends to focus on specific matters.Besides,such practice of codes are used in the
attainment of health,safety as well as welfare which is a requirement of the WHS Act including
the WHS regulations.

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Explain hazard identification and risk-management processes
Hazard identification is a process which involves an assessment of a particular situation
which may cause harm. In simple terms, it is a risk assessment process which entails
identification of hazards and the risk factors (Duckett & Willcox, 2015). There are a variety of
hazards such as fatigue, biological, chemical, bullying, physical, workplace stress and
ergonomic. The risk management process on the other hand is a process which entails, the
identification, review and management of potential risks with the aim of reducing the negative
effect of such risks on an organization. It is usually a four step process which entails first, the
identification of various hazards in the workplace, then the evaluation of such hazards. Later, the
control measures are enforced to help in control of the hazards and reviewed to ensure the
control measures are fully implemented.
Describe the hierarchy of risk control and how it is applied in the workplace
At level 1, the risks are controlled through the elimination of the hazards. In level 2, the
risk is controlled by reduction of the risks using engineering controls, isolation of hazards from
people and substitution of the hazard with something safer. However, at level 3, risk control is
done by the use of personal protective equipment and reduction of exposure to the hazard by use
of administrative actions. The risk controls are usually ascertained based on the hierarchy of
control according to a reasonable practicality.Also,the risk control are ranked on the basis of a
standard risk controls which are significant to the disability sector put in place which could
inclide,safety information, first aid, communication equipment, planned maintenance systems,
behaviour support plans as well as safe work procedures.

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Specify in-house and WHS legislative reporting requirements
The in house and WHS legislative reporting requirements include, monitoring of
environment, equipment and plant testing and maintenance reports, rehabilitation and workers’
compensation records, supplier and manufacturer information such as dangerous goods storage
lists (Duckett & Willcox, 2015)Also,the WHS legislative reporting requires that the report to be
timely, robust and relevant and this is to ensure that a full information is provided to allow for
decision making which would have an influence on an ongoing performance of a particular
business.
Evaluation Report
The planner is set to begin from 11.12.2018 and this will be done by 4 planners and 4
individuals. Based on the report, the WHSMS of the hardware will be prepared based on the
Australian WHS hardware store. The report is further explained as indicated below in the paper.
The planners complied with all reuiments of WSH

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