Health and Safety Policies and Practices at Cromwell Hospital Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of health and safety practices within Cromwell Hospital, a healthcare organization in the UK. The report begins with an introduction outlining the importance of health and safety in the context of health and social care. Task 1 focuses on the development of syst...Read More

Health and Safety

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................4
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................4
a) How systems, policies and
procedures can be developed for communicating information on health and safety..................4
b) Assessment of responsibilities of management of health and safety at each level within
organization.................................................................................................................................5
c) Analyzing health and safety priorities.....................................................................................6
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................7
a) Risk Assessment in health and social care environment ........................................................7
b) Analysis of the impact of an aspect of health and safety policy.............................................9
c) Dealing with dilemmas related implementation of safety policies .......................................10
d) Effect of the non compliance of health and safety legislation in the given case...................10
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................11
a) How health and safety policies are monitored and reviewed ...............................................11
b) Analyzing priorities in specific aspects of health and safety................................................12
c) Critical evaluation of own contribution ................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................14
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Illustration Index
Index of Tables
Table 1: Risk assessment in health and social care..........................................................................7
3

INTRODUCTION
In health and social care workplace health and safety are the important facets that
significantly affect care takers, health professionals, organizations and community at large
(Barrington, 2015).The present report explores how health and safety legislation is implemented
in health and social care organizations. The organization selected for the study is Cromwell
Hospital which is located in London , UK. The report also talks about the ways in which health
and safety requirements affect service users and the work of health care professionals in the
chosen care organization. It also also features the monitoring and reviewing of health and safety
policies and practices in the care organization.
TASK 1
a) How systems, policies and
procedures can be developed for communicating information on health and safety
Implementation of health and safety policies and practices are very crucial for Cromwell
Hospital. In order to ensure effective communication of health and safety systems and policies of
the organization these can be reviewed in the following manner:
Communication:
Effective communication plays vital role for ensuring proper execution of health and
safety practices in Cromwell Hospital. All the health and social care professions of the
organization can be made aware of important health and safety procedures and acts through
various communication processes (Borkowski, 2015). Cromwell Hospital can make use of
different media ad training modules to clearly articulate all the concepts of risks and safety to
care professionals. These risks involve in care setting are broadly categorized into various kinds
such as minimum risks, zero risk, individual risk, protection from potential harm, risks from
equipment and substances and accidents. Therefore effective communication processes can help
the health professionals and management of Cromwell Hospital in carrying out their operations.
Legislative requirements:
Health and safety policies and acts laid down by UK government encourage care
organizations to ensure safety of health staff and service users Some of the important health and
safety legislation formulated by UK government are as follows:
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 Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 : This act is one of the primary act that deals with
occupational health and safety in UK (Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, 2016.). The
health and safety executive work with local authorities to ensure the enforcement of this
act. Cromwell Hospital need to comply this act in order to protect staff from occupational
health and safety risks. Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981: This act applies to all workplaces in
UK. The act provide guidance to organizations about managing provisions of first aid at
their workplaces (The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981, 2016.). Cromwell
Hospital also need to abide by this act in order to make the employees aware of first aid
arrangements in their workplace. In addition to this, the hospital need to take care of
training of care staff for first aid help as per the guidelines of the act.
Implementation:
Proper implementation of these health and safety acts are very crucial for Cromwell
Hospital in order to protect its employees from potential harm and risks in their workplaces. The
hospital can develop strategies to implement codes and practices of health and safety in its care
setting (Dahlgren and Whitehead, 2015). For example: Cromwell Hospital can develop the
provision of making its premises safe and secured by installing door locks, closed circuit
cameras and alarms. In addition to this it can develop its first aid arrangements as per the
guidelines of the Health and Safety Regulations 1981. Apart from this, it can review its
organizational health and safety practices to make necessary improvements from time to time.
b) Assessment of responsibilities of management of health and safety at each level within
organization
There are various internal and external entities that play important roles in
implementation of health and safety legislation in workplaces in health and social care. In order
to assess responsibilities of these entities at different levels within Cromwell Hospital following
points can be discussed: Top Management: Top Management of Cromwell Hospital is responsible for developing
effective heath and safety policies in their workplaces (Tomlinson, 2015). The
management make sure that its organizational health and safety practices are in line with
UK Government's regulations and acts. Another responsibilities of the top management
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of Cromwell Hospital include training of health and social care workers on vital health
and safety issues. Mid level Managers: Cromwell Hospital's mid level managers play important role in
training of health care staff on several important aspects of occupational health and safety
concerns (Barthow and et.al., 2015). In addition to that these managers also monitor
proper execution of health and safety practices on a daily basis. Carers: It is one of the responsibilities of care workers to effectively follow the
organizational practices implemented by Cromwell Hospital. In addition to this, health
staff of the hospital need to consult their respective managers on procedures to prevent
risks and hazards related to occupational safety. They make sure to report the cases of
faulty instruments and substances that can pose perils of potential hazards in their
workplace. Safety Consultants: These consultants are employed by the care organization to
implement instruments and tools that are used to prevent hazards. Safety consultants are
responsible for providing essential information to to managers of Cromwell Hospital
about health and safety regulations and acts so that the organization can develop effective
policies.
 Health care inspectors: These are external entities that play cardinal role in inspecting
the efficacy of health and safety policies and practices of Cromwell Hospital (Zineldin,
2015). Health care inspectors report any cases of inappropriate health and safety practices
that the organization is following.
c) Analyzing health and safety priorities
The priorities of health and safety aspects of Cromwell Hospital can be analyzed in the
following manner. As a care worker it can be analyzed that the first priority of Cromwell
Hospital is to develop health and safety practices that are in line with UK governments health
and safety regulations and acts to prevent health hazards at its workplace. The second priority of
the top management of Cromwell Hospital is to ensure that the health staff is well
communicated regarding the concepts of risks in occupation health and safety. For this the
organization need to train carers on various health and safety issues which they can encounter
during their course of duties. In addition to this, it can be analyzed that carers of Cromwell
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Hospital need to make sure to report the cases of faulty health care equipment that can pose
perils of potential hazards to health of individuals in the organization (VanderWiele and Ozcan,
2015). Besides this, it is also the responsibilities of carers to keep the hazardous substances and
instruments at their designated places to avoid any mishap. Further it can be analyzed that
consulting to receptive managers for implementation of specific health and safety practices is
also one of the health and safety priorities. In addition to this, the priorities also include effective
communication between health care teams to increase the effectiveness of implemented health
and safety policies and practices at Cromwell Hospital. For example: physicians and care
assistant can work as team to identify problems related to implementation of health and safety
practices to avoid fatal accidents in their workplace. Apart from this, regular inspection and
monitoring is another important aspect of health and safety priorities of Cromwell Hospital
which is carried out by health inspectors and auditors.
TASK 2
a) Risk Assessment in health and social care environment
Table 1: Risk assessment in health and social care
What are
the
hazards?
Who might
be harmed
and how?
What are you
already doing?
Do you need to
do anything
else to manage
this risk?
Action by
whom?
Action by
when?
Slips and
trips
Patients
coming for
treatment
Visitors
Health care
professionals
The floors are
being kept dried
Signage is kept
when the floor
is wet
Boxes,
wheelchairs etc.
are not kept in
I need to carry
out a strict
monitoring on
dried floors, use
of proper
signage and
keeping the
premises free of
trips
Supervisor End of this
week
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What are
the
hazards?
Who might
be harmed
and how?
What are you
already doing?
Do you need to
do anything
else to manage
this risk?
Action by
whom?
Action by
when?
between stairs
Chances of
fire
Patients
Visitors
Health care
professionals
Guest doctors
A fire drill is
performed once
a week
(VanderWielen,
and Ozcan,
2015).
There is a need
to remove all
the faulty
equipment’s
from the
premises.
By head
nurse and
supervisor
By end of
week
Chances of
cross
contaminatio
n
Patients
Health care
professionals
Signage is kept
for washing
hands frequent
near basins
Undertake
training sessions
for avoiding
cross
contamination
Head nurse
and
supervisors
By end of
week
1. Care planning for individuals: The above risk assessment give vital information related to
potential hazards and individuals who are at major risk of these hazards. The care planning in the
context of slips and trips include proper usage of signage boards to make the visitors and care
takers aware of the wet floors. To reduce the risk of fires, weekly fire drills can be conducted in
the organization.
2. Organizational decision making: The risk assessment gives essential information to formulate
safety policies to prevent fatal accidents (Rees and et.al., 2015). Cromwell Hospital can design
policies to control infections in its premises by implementing those policies.
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b) Analysis of the impact of an aspect of health and safety policy
Prevention of hospital acquired infections is one of the important aspect of health and
safety policy at Cromwell Hospital. It has been observed that hospitals are the potential places of
microbial infections which leads to several health risks to health staff and care takers. Therefore
this aspect of health and safety policy need to be addressed effectively to control infections in the
care setting. As a care assistant it can be analyzed that infection control policy of Cromwell
Hospital positively impact the health and well being of all individuals involved in health and
social care setting of the organization. The major impacts are discussed in the following points:
1. Overall health and social practices: An effectively managed infection control policy at
Cromwell Hospital can leads to elimination of risk associated with microbial infection in
the hospital. It can be analyzed that proper maintenance of cleanliness and hygiene can
prevent the risk of hospital acquired diseases such as urinary tract infection, bloodstream
infection, wound and lung infection among carers and service users. Health and safety
procedures to prevent infection enable care assistants to properly sterilize equipment and
tools after every use (Stewart, Skinner,Weiss and Middleton, 2015). Safe disposal of
hospital waste is also helps in reducing the risk of hospital acquired infections.
2. The hospital's internal and external customers: Infection control policy largely impact
the health and well-being of care takers as well as care givers. It can be analyzed that
service users get affected with infections during long hospital stays which can be
prevented by following cleanliness and hygiene guidelines. Proper implementation of
infection control procedures can lead to better protection of care takers and employees.
c) Dealing with dilemmas related implementation of safety policies
In health and social care, there may arise certain dilemmas which significantly affect the
health and safety practices of care organizations. These dilemmas occur due to the differences of
interests of service users and care givers. For example: a mental patient wants to go out to the
terrace of hospital but the domiciliary care worker of Cromwell Hospital cannot allow him to
express his wish in order to ensure the safety of the patient against any fatal accident. This can
lead to dilemma because the organizational norms do not allow the care worker to disobey any
care taker (Samad and et.al., 2016). However the for the safety of the service users is the prime
responsibility of care worker which forces him to stop the patient from going to the terrace of
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hospital. The dilemma can be addressed by the help of Mental Health Act 1983 which allows the
domiciliary care worker to take decisions on behalf of the patient suffering from mental disorder
(Mental Health Act, 2016). The act enables care workers of the Cromwell Hospital to ensure
health and safety of these patients without their prior consent as they themselves lack ability to
make decisions to protect their own rights to safety and health. The domiciliary carers can
effectively implement health and safety practices and systems in order to prevent accidents and
mishaps while providing care to patients.
d) Effect of the non compliance of health and safety legislation in the given case
Non Compliance of of specific aspects of health and safety legislation causes severe
consequences in a day care center of elderly people who are suffering from dementia. The effects
of non compliance of health and safety legislation are discussed in the following points:
 Elderly people with dementia lack the ability to make own decisions regarding health and
safety. Therefore the care workers need to take care of their health and safety needs to
protect them from risks of accidents (Maxwell and et.al., 2015). For example: older
people with dementia can aimlessly roam in the hospital premises if not watched by care
workers. This leads to fatal accidents such as falls and slips.
 Non compliance of infection control policies in the day care center of elderly patients
with dementia can leads to perils of various infection borne diseases such as Urinary tract
infection, lung and bloodstream infections. This further creates negative impact on the
health of older patients.
 Non Compliance of health and safety legislation can adversely affect the quality of care
services that are meant for promoting overall well-being of older people with dementia.
For example: Older patients behave aggressively and cause harm to other patients and
carers. If the management of the day care center do not take effective safety measures
then it may cause threat to lives of other care takers and the staff including the patient
himself.
 Another negative effect of non compliance of health and safety legislation in the given
scenario is that people may lose faith in the services of the day care center which
degrades its brand image in the health and social care sector in UK.
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TASK 3
a) How health and safety policies are monitored and reviewed
Monitoring of health and safety policies is very important in the health and social care
setting. In order to discuss the ways of monitoring and reviewing of health and safety practices
and policies of Cromwell Hospital following points can be elaborated: Preparing checklists: Cromwell Hospital can prepare a list of factors that are are very
important from the point of health and safety practices within its workplace (Hall,
Oudyk, King, Naqvi and Lewchuk, 2016). The organization can monitor the effectiveness
of its risk assessment in order to address specific aspects of health and safety issues. Safety Inspections: Safety inspection is another way of monitoring the effectiveness of
implemented health and safety practices within its setup. This helps the hospital to rectify
the loopholes in the existing health and safety policies to ensure prevention of health and
safety hazards. Another way of effective monitoring of health and safety legislation is by
reviewing management reports. In addition to this hazard reports can be reviewed to
increase the efficacy of health and safety procedures.
 Periodic Audits: Regular audits are very beneficial to check the effectiveness of health
and safety practices of Cromwell Hospital. These audits enable the firm to update its
safety measures in order to implement better protection procedures within its care setting
such as faulty instruments can be replaced with improved equipment that can minimize
the risk of accidents (Rees and et.al., 2015).
b) Analyzing priorities in specific aspects of health and safety
As a care worker of Cromwell Hospital, I give prime importance to heath and safety of
service users. It is one of the priority of my work to protect patients from potential hazards such
as accidents from falls and slips, injury from medical equipment, violent behavior of other
patients. In order to prevent patients from falls and slips, I make sure that there is a provision of
bed rails or wheel chairs for those care takers who are incapable of walking due to their illness.
Another important area which needs special attention in preventing health and safety risks
include cleanliness and hygiene factor (Fisher and et. al., 2015). It has been observed that poorly
maintained hospital premises can cause severe infectious diseases among service users and
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health staff. Therefore I make sure to properly sterilize instruments and tools to prevent
contamination. In addition to this, I also ensure safe disposal of hospital waste to control deadly
microbial infections. Through effective care planning I make sure to implement safety policies of
the hospital to protect service users from fatal accidents such as fire. In my role of carer
c) Critical evaluation of own contribution
In residential care setting, as a care worker, I lay major emphasis on the safety issues of
clients. I keep the safety and security needs of care takers in the center of my work activities. I
make sure to use sterilized needles and tools to protect the patient from the risk of infection. In
addition to this, I make sure to dispose the residential care home waste in the safest manner to
eliminate the risk of pathogenic infections. I also give prime importance to hygiene and
cleanliness factor of the residential care home (Connolly and et.al., 2015). In addition to this my
role as carer can be be critically evaluated in case of handling dilemma issues as there are
patients who refuse to obey in response to their safety concerns. This makes the implementation
of care plan slightly challenging. However this can be effectively resolved with the help of
sound knowledge about health and safety policies.
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, health and safety policies play very important role in preventing risks
associated with health and safety within organizational workplaces. There are various health and
safety legislation laid down by UK government that provide guidelines to care organizations of
the region to implement effective safety policies in order to protect service users and care givers .
Top Management, carers and external care agencies play cardinal role in development,
implementation and monitoring of health and safety practices. The health and safety policies of
care settings significantly affect internal as well as external customers. It has been observed that
non compliance of these safety policies negatively impact the health and safety of care takers.
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REFERENCE
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VanderWielen, L.M. and Ozcan, Y.A., 2015. An Assessment of the Health Care Safety Net
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Online
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. 2016. [Online] Available through:
<http://www.hse.gov.uk/legislation/hswa.htm>. [Accessed on 16th January 2016].
Mental Health Act, 2016. [Online] Available through: Health and Regulations Act
<http://www.mentalhealthcare.org.uk/mental_health_act>. [Accessed on 16th January 2016].
The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981, 2016. [Online] Available through:
<http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/l74.htm>. [Accessed on 16th January 2016].
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