Health and Safety in the Health and Social Care Workplace Assignment

This report critically analyzes health and safety practices within the health and social care workplace, focusing on the case of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust. It examines communication systems, policies, and procedures, highlighting failures in patient care due to inadequate management and a lack of focus on patient needs. The report delves into the responsibilities of healthcare management in ensuring a safe environment, including staff training and adherence to health and safety regulations. It emphasizes the importance of risk assessment and individual care planning, detailing their impact on patient well-being and the effectiveness of healthcare practices. Furthermore, the report addresses dilemmas encountered in implementing systems and policies, the effects of non-compliance with health and safety legislation, and the process of monitoring and reviewing health and safety policies to promote a positive and safe culture within the workplace. The analysis covers key aspects such as the importance of prioritizing regulations, security, and cleanliness to enhance patient and staff safety.

Health and safety in the health and social care
workplace

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Critically review the systems, policies and procedures that Mid Staffordshire NHS
Trust has in place to communicate information about Health and Safety in the
workplace....................................................................................................................................3
1.2 Responsibilities in a specific health and social
care workplace............................................................................................................................4
1.3 Health and safety priorities appropriate for a specific
health and social care workplace................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2.1Importance of risk assessment and individual care planning .................................................5
2.2 Impact of aspect of health and safety policy on health social care practices and its
customers.....................................................................................................................................6
2.3 How dilemmas encountered in relation to implementation of systems and policies.............7
2.4 Effect of non-compliance with health and safety legislation.................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
3.1Review or monitor the health and safety policies and practices.............................................8
3.2Effectiveness of health and safety policies and practices in the workplace...........................9
3.3Own contribution to placing health and safety needs of individuals......................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Health and social care is the term which is related to integrate services that are available
from health and social care providers. Provision of health and social care play an important role
in country. It involves several elements such as law, nutrition, ethics, biology, sociology etc. This
report is prepared to analyze the policies, review system and procedures for communication of
information in health and social care and legislative requirements at the work place (Atwal and
Jones, 2009). Here in the report the ways in which health and safety requirements impact on
customers and the work of practitioners, effect of non-compliance with health and safety
legislation, monitoring and review of heal and safety in the workplace and the effectiveness of
policies and practices in the health and social care in promoting a positive, healthy and safe
culture is discussed.
TASK 1
1.1 Critically review the systems, policies and procedures that Mid Staffordshire NHS
Trust has in place to communicate information about Health and Safety in the
workplace.
The review system, policies and procedures for communication of information at Mid
Staffordshire NHS Trust about health and safety in the workplace is was not very effective as
they were failed to listen the problems of their patients which were resulted in the death of the
patient. The trust failed to tackle an insidious negative culture that tolerated poor standards and a
disengagement from leadership and managerial responsibilities (Brand, 2012).
The trust mostly focuses on reaching national targets and achieving financial balance
which resulted in the failure of hospital. They always are seeking the foundation trust status as
the cost of delivering acceptable standards of care. The management of hospital was not
performing their responsibilities effectively which was resulted in the death of a patient.
Employees were not hearing the problems properly and they didn’t read the reports of clients
which lead to public inquiry of Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust in relation to the care received by
patients between 2005 and 2008.
The communication of information at hospital was not effective as workers were not
taking proper care of patients and not hearing their problems properly so the communication
system was not efficient (Davies, 2000). They had not developed proper policies and procedures
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for health and safety of patients at the workplace. There was inadequate review and maintenance
system resulted in the death of patient which led to the appalling standard of care provided by
Mid Staffordshire.
The system, process and policies of hospital were not good and their management for
health and safety of patients was inadequate. They were not providing proper care to the people
which resulted in the death of Gillian Astbury (Fisher, 2005). She was suffered from diabetes
and was admitted in hospital but the team of nurses did not bother to read her medical notes and
failed to provide proper care to her. So, the system, process and procedures of hospital were
terrible.
1.2 Responsibilities in a specific health and social
care workplace.
The management of hospital has so many responsibilities for health and safety of in
relation to organization structure. The management of hospital is required to develop effective
policies and procedures which are needed to be followed by employees at workplace. They have
to provide proper direction to their nurses and other staff for proper care of patients.
Management of Mid Staffordshire has to provide proper training and development to their staff
so that they can perform their duties effectively and can provide proper care to patients.
They can recruit new high qualified and skilled staff in order to provide high quality
services and care to people (Glasby, 2012). Managements of hospital are required to conduct
meeting with their employees and can provide proper guidance for health and safety of each
patients. They are responsible to conduct daily meeting with staff. The management is required
to They are required to implement the health and safety acts and provisions developed by
government. They are responsible for monitoring and evaluation of process and policies used by
hospital.
Management have to inspect the performance of nurses, medical professionals and other
staff in order to provide proper health, safety and care to the patients. They have the
responsibility to develop proper structure so that employees have the knowledge about the
person to whom they have to report. It helps to remove ambiguity and provide proper direction to
the workers (Martin and Henderson, 2001). Management also has responsibility to provide
training to their existing and new staff so that they can perform their responsibilities effectively.
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1.3 Health and safety priorities appropriate for a specific
health and social care workplace
In the health and social care workplace there are various laws and regulations developed
by government. Management has the responsibility to ensure that all employees are well trained
on health and safety issues that may occur during the course of their duties. They are required to
follow Health and Safety Work Act 1974 in order to provide proper care to patients in hospital.
Mid Staffordshire have to implement Health and Safety Regulations 1981, Reporting of injuries,
Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995, Management of Health and Safety
Regulation 1999, Mental Health Act 2007, Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (Scott
and Spouse, 2013).
They can follow these acts and regulations in their operations would help them to provide
proper care and safety to their patients. They are required to give priority for successfully follow
of these regulations in their operations in order to provide health and safety at workplace.
Hospital also need to give priority to security system which involve camera, door locks, gates,
temperature control, consequences of malfunction, breakdown of equipments maintenances of
building and machines etc.
As the survey reported that Trust failed to tackle an insidious negative culture that
tolerated poor standards and a disengagement from managerial and leadership responsibilities,
they were required to give priorities to regulation and laws in their operations which was
developed by Heal and Safety Executive in order to protect the life of patients and to provide
proper care to them (Turner, 2006). They need to give priority for proper and safe equipments
such as wheelchairs, walking aid etc. Hospital is also required to give attention on cleanliness of
the building in order to promote and encourage health and safety at workplace.
TASK 2
2.1 Importance of risk assessment and individual care planning
The risk assessment process will provide several useful information to the hospital which
can be use by them for effective decision making about policies and procedures. They can
conduct meetings with staff for assessment of risk which will help them to identify the needs and
expectations of their staff so that they can provide satisfaction to them and to improve efficiency
and performance of workers (Gill and White, 2009). Meeting with nurses and other staff of
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hospital will helps them to identify the risk involved in their operations so that they can take
corrective measures in order to reduce them and to improve efficiency and performance of
operations. Information gathered through risk assessment process will be use to maximize the
well-being of patients.
It helps to identify the needs of patients and to take corrective measures in order to
provide proper care and safety t them. Information collected through risk assessment helps in
development of effective policies, procedures and principles of good practice dilemmas. It will
assist to provide timely and adequate health and care to patients and to provide satisfaction to
them. Information can be used to identify the risk involved in the use of equipments and machine
which can affects the health of staff (Muller, Bezuidenhout and Jooste, 2006). This will help to
provide job satisfaction to them as management of hospital will give attention to their health and
safety at workplace. Risk assessment process will help to ensure security and safety in hospital.
It provides the methods t assess the risk and eliminate of minimize them.
2.2 Impact of aspect of health and safety policy on health social care practices and its customers
The health and safety policy includes various aspects but here in the case of Mid
Staffordshire NHS Trust, care planning has been selected. It highly impact on the health and
safety of hospital and its customers. Care planning can be done by conducting meetings with
nurses, medical professionals and other staff it helps them to identify their needs and
expectations and to satisfy them so that they can perform their responsibilities effectively (Shi,
2010). It is the set of action which is implemented to solve the issues of staff and customers in
order to provide satisfaction to tem.
Care planning is focus on the outcome of hospital and their staff. It is a systematic
process which is related with future. They can develop the planning and can set standard for staff
which they needs to fulfill and if they lack in their performance hospital can take corrective
measures in order to provide high quality care and services to their patients. The Mid
Staffordshire NHS Trust can use care planning in their operations as the public enquiry has
identified that they were failed to listen patients and staff or to ensure the correction of
deficiencies (Willcocks, 2011).
Hospital can use care planning in which they can set standard of performance for their
employees and can provide sufficient training to them so that they can perform their
responsibilities effectively. It helps to evaluate the performance of employees and to identify the
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loop holes in their performance so that hospital can take corrective measures in order to improve
efficiency of nurses and other staff (Bryans, 2004). This would help hospital to maintain and
provide the proper care, safety and health to their patients in order to maintain their trust with
NHS.
2.3 How dilemmas encountered in relation to implementation of systems and policies
It is important for the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust to identify dilemmas in their
operations so that they can provide effective health and safety at workplace to their patients and
staff. Problems in the performance can be identified by conducting face to face meetings with the
nurses and other medical professionals. The failure of Trust was in part due to their nurses was
not hearing their problems of patients which resulted in the death of Gillian Astbury.
They were focus on financial balance and to achieve status and they ignore the health of
patient as they were not providing sufficient training to them to effectively deal with clients
(Clouston and Westcott, 2005). For effectively implementation of policies and procedures they
can identify the problems by conducting meeting, conferences with staff. They can also conduct
research in the internal environment in order to identify problems in implementation of policies
and procedures. It will help them to identify the problems of employees that are associated with
the policies. Staff can resist from acceptance of system and policies so they need to identify their
issues through meetings and to solve them so that they can effectively implement them.
They can also conduct meetings with their other stakeholders in order to identify their
needs and expectations regarding the system and procedures of hospital in order to provide
satisfaction to them and to gain their commitment which will help them to successfully
implement the policies and strategies (Day and Wigens, 2006). The stakeholders of hospital are
community, patients, medical professionals, government. Mid Staffordshire requires to conducts
meeting with them and to take their approval prior implementation of policy. It would help them
to successfully implementation of policy, system and procedures.
2.4 Effect of non-compliance with health and safety legislation.
The non-compliances with health and safety legislation highly impact on the care of Mid
Staffordshire patients and the workplace. The government of UK has developed various laws and
regulations for health and safety of patients at health and social care organizations. These
organizations have to follow these regulation and if they non-compliances with these legislations
then it will negatively impact on the health of patients and performance of firm.
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Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust had no follow the rules and regulations developed by the
government and they were not providing proper care to their patients and which were resulted in
the death of Gillian Astbury (Kozlowski and Salas, 2009). The death of patients negatively
impact on the performance of hospital and it led to a public inquiry in relation to the care
received by the patients between 2005 and 2008. Non-compliances with health and safety
legislation negatively impact on the financial position of Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust as the
death of patients led to the people started going to other hospitals which reduce the profitability
of NHS trust.
It also impacted on the reputation of hospital. Patients didn’t like to go at their hospitals
as they believed that they were not providing proper health and care to people. The non-
compliances of legislation legally also impacted on organization as government forces them to
follow all the rules and regulations and to provide proper safety to their patients (McWilliam and
Griffin, 2006).
TASK 3
3.1 Review or monitor the health and safety policies and practices.
Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust requires to review and monitor their policies and practices
and they can use various techniques. Some of them are enumerated: Audit of risk: They can use risk assessment process in order to review their policies and
practices. It would help them to evaluate the risk involved in their system and polices so
that they can take corrective measures in order to improve them. Audit of risk will
provide important information, which can be use by hospital to improve their policies in
order to provide high quality care and services to patients (Reeves and et.al. 2011).
Monitoring and review of polices would help them to improve efficiency and
performance of their staff.
 Review of practices: To monitor polices, hospital can review their practices and it would
help them to identify the effect of their policies on activities and performance of
organization (Mihaiu, Opreana and Cristescu, 2010). Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust can
use it in order to evaluate their practices and to identify the areas in which they required
to improve so that they can take corrective measures in order to enhance their
performance and to provide higher level safety and care to their patients.
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 Learning from experiences: They can also monitor their policies from experience. It
would help them to learn and improve polices. It provides important information to them
and also helps them to identify need for improvement in system and policies (Lee, Khong
and Ghista, 2006). Experience provides direction and would help Mid Staffordshire to
increase their performance and to provide satisfaction to the employees as well as
patients.
 Meetings: Hospital can conduct meeting with their staff in order to review and monitor
their policies as they will provide the useful information about their policies and will also
provide the ideas and suggestion for improvement (Draper and et.al. 2008). This would
help them to enhance their performance and to provide satisfaction to patients.
3.2 Effectiveness of health and safety policies and practices in the workplace.
The existence of effective and safety policies and practices can ensure a positive health
and safety culture in Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust with the teams, individuals, managers and
organization level (Cowing and et.al. 2009). The can use effective two way communication in
order to provide information to their individual staff so that they can effectively follow those
policies in their practices. Hospital can involve managers in implementation of policy in order to
provide better understanding to them and to gain their commitment.
They can start team work in which a group of employees will report to an individual
which would help them to maintain the performance of employees and to develop a positive
health and safety culture in the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust. Work in a team is the most
effective way for implementation of policies and procedures (Communication in health and
social care, n.d). They can also develop policies at organization level in which all the nurses,
medical professionals and other staff would perform their responsibilities effectively and can
develop positive health and safety culture in Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust.
3.3 Own contribution to placing health and safety needs of individuals.
The health and safety needs of an individual can placed at the center of practices through
training and development, motivation, effective communication. I would conduct effective
training and development programs for staff in order to improve their skills so that they can
perform their roles and responsibilities effectively to provide higher level of care and safety to
patients. I would use effective two way communication and would provide all the necessary
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information to nurses, medical professionals and other so that they can have proper knowledge
about the health and safety policies and regulations developed by government. This would help
to provide higher level of care to patients and to provide job satisfaction to employees. I would
ensure that people employees should work in group so that they can perform well. I would
increase employee’s interaction in order to increase their knowledge and information. This
would help to improve their performance. I would ensure that all the employees should follow all
the regulations that are developed by government in their duties so that positive health and safety
culture can b develop and proper care should provided to patients.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be articulated that health and social care organizations are
required to implement health and safety legislations in their operations in order to provide high
quality care to patients. In the case of Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, the employees were not
performing their responsibilities effectively as they were not hear the problems of patients which
were resulted in the death of a patient and led to public enquiry. They can use risk assessment
process in order to identify important information which is required to provide safety to patients.
Hospital can also use several monitoring and review techniques in order to reduce risk in the
process and to provide high quality care to patients. They can conduct training and development
programs in order to improve skills and abilities of patients so that they can perform their roles
and responsibilities effectively. Hospital an also use two way communication so that employees
can have better understanding about the policies and practices of organization. It would help in
development of positive health and safety work culture and provide better services to patients.
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REFRENCES
Books & Journals
Atwal, A. and Jones, M., 2009. Preparing for Professional Practice in Health and Social Care.
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social care professionals. London: Nelson Thornes.
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Glasby, J., 2012. Understanding Health and Social Care. The Policy Press.
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Scott, I. and Spouse, J., 2013. Practice Based Learning in Nursing, Health and Social Care:
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Shi, L., 2010. Managing Human Resources in Health Care Organizations. Jones & Bartlett
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Online
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