Health and Safety Report: Risk Assessment, Communication, and Policies

This report delves into the critical aspects of health and safety within healthcare environments, emphasizing the importance of maintaining patient well-being. It begins by establishing the significance of health and safety policies and procedures, highlighting their role in minimizing risks and errors. The report explores various communication methods essential for effective information exchange within healthcare settings, including verbal, written, and graphic communication. It further defines the responsibilities of different stakeholders, such as employers, employees, and suppliers, in ensuring a safe environment. The report addresses the prioritization of health and safety measures, focusing on environmental control systems, structural designs, and security protocols. It defines risk assessment, outlining a five-step plan to identify hazards and mitigate potential risks. The report also defines manual handling, discussing its advantages and disadvantages, and examines its implications within the context of case studies. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive overview of health and safety practices, aimed at improving the quality of care and protecting both patients and staff.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
[1.1] ............................................................................................................................................3
[1.2].............................................................................................................................................4
1.3]..............................................................................................................................................5
[2.1] Define Risk Assessment.....................................................................................................6
(2.2) Define Manual handling ...................................................................................................8
[2.3] Define Dilemma ................................................................................................................9
2.4 Effects of non-compliance with health and safety legislation in a health and social care. .10
Workplace................................................................................................................................10
[3.1]..........................................................................................................................................11
3.2..............................................................................................................................................12
(3.3). Give your own contribution on Case Study 1 and 2,......................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Maintaining health and safety of a patient in any healthcare home, hospitals or private
care centres have now become a very integral part of health care systems (Al-Hazmi, 2013).
Providing best quality services to all the service users has now become very challenging because
many mistakes and errors occurs on daily basis which has a negative impact on health of patients
in hospitals. It is very necessary to ensure and plan effective strategies to reduce mistakes. To
minimize risk of patients, it is important to take appropriate measures so that health of no
individual is compromised (Beets, Webster and Huberty, 2013). Health and safety department
should develop goals and objectives which will help them to provide best quality services and it
will also reduce risk and vulnerability to patients due to different reasons.
The report will include different task based on given case studies. It will focus on various
systems, procedures and policies required for effective communication in health and social care.
Further it will also emphasize on responsibilities and roles which are very important for
managing health and safety at the workplace. Impact of health and safety policies on service
users and customers will also be included in the report. Lastly, it will focus on ways to monitor
policies and practices in health and safety unit.
[1.1]
Policies – These are the specific decisions, plans and actions that are undertaken so as to
achieve the health care goals (Ham, 2009).
Procedures – These are the documented processes that are used to fulfill the policies that
have been set in the organization (Anderson, 2016).
Effective communication in H&S
Communicating information in health and social care unit is very important because it
plays a vital role in increasing and enhancing productivity level in North Staffordshire
combined health care NHS trust (Cvach, 2012). Negative impact of improper communication
has been noticed which ultimately affects quality of health care services furnished to the
service users in the hospital. In this regard, there are varied forms of communication that can
be used in health and social care.
Type of communication How can they be carried out
Verbal Communication meeting, training, supervision

Written Communication Report, memo, email.
Graphic Communication Sign, posters, drawing
Communication as per case study
 Hence to reduce these types of incidence in future, it is very important for the hospital to
establish effective internal and external communication system within the organization.
This will help in minimizing rate of injuries and death in the hospital (Frieden, 2014).
 North Staffordshire combined health care NHS trust should also organize various training
programmes to increase the communication and knowledge of all the employees working
in a hospital. Only through effective communication and legislation, better healthcare
facilities can be provided to all the service users (Health and safety communication and
consultation procedure, 2016).
 It is the duty of hospital to maintain regular databases of all the customers as it improves
effectiveness of communication. It also helps in informing all the patients about their
appointments with different physicians in the hospital (Dunn, 2015).
 As diverse group of employees working in North Staffordshire combined health care
NHS trust have been observed, the hospital organizes different training programs so that
all workers can readily adapt and learn different languages to improve communication
skills (Guest, Ricciardi and Lang, 2013).
[1.2]
Responsibilities - it can be defined as the duty or obligation to perform a task in
satisfactory manner (Owen, Bessant and Heintz, 2013).
Richard Owen, John Bessant, Maggy Heintz
Persons/organizations Their responsibilities
Employers It is the duty of employer to maintain
community healthcare services in different
areas so that all the patients are reviewed
properly (Kitson, Marshall and Zeitz, 2013).

To provide training and development
programs to their employees so that
performance of all the workers is improved.
Employees, These are in form of physicians that are
responsible to make decision about their
respective patients so that better quality
services are provided to them.
As patients who avail healthcare services in
hospitals are charged according to the
treatment and it is the responsibility of
physicians, nurses and other staff members to
provide best quality services (Esperat,
Hanson‐Turton and Rupinta, 2012).
visitor To maintain discipline and no noise when they
are in hospital premises.
Suppliers. To provide the hospital with proper supply of
equipment, medicines
Ensure that the medicines and other facilities
provided by them are of the standard quality.
Directors Director panel is responsible for making
overall decisions associated with the hospitals
(Healy, 2013).
[1.3]
Priorities
In every healthcare organization, management team develops specific requirements and
needs which are very important for maintaining image and organization’s brand (Marschall,
Mermel and Yokoe, 2014). Certain priorities have been developed by North Staffordshire
combined health care NHS trust to ensure that better health care facilities are given to all the
individuals present in the hospital.

 It is the duty and responsibility of hospital to maintain suitable environment and control
systems which can increase productiveness of the hospital (Martinez, Wu and Chavez-
Baray, 2015).
 The structural part of the hospital should be designed according to the healthcare
legislations. If the healthcare centre is situated near to main road then the organization
should plan to develop these structures into proper buildings.
 According to different legislations, all the healthcare organizations are directed to use
white and light green colour for walls and blue colour for window (Millar, Mannion and
Davies, 2013).
 The hospital should be constructed in an environment which is peaceful and friendly so
that noise, air and water pollution do not affect health of patients in the hospitals. Further,
it should be ensured that the place is peaceful so that people are able to take rest during
the treatment (Legal Responsibilities of Employers, 2016).
 North Staffordshire combined health care NHS trust should be well equipped with
security systems to ensure proper security of incoming and outgoing people in the
hospital (Mohan, Grant and McCormick, 2013).
 They should install cameras, gate control systems and time punching system to record the
entry and exit of all members present in the hospital. They should also adopt methods to
protect the environment according to green affects.
 According to food safety Act 1990, North Staffordshire combined health care NHS trust
should take proper responsibility of disposing of the garbage collected from the hospital
(Morse, Bracker and Cook, 2013). It should be ensured that garbage should be recycled
according to the environmental policies so that it does not produce hazardous effects on
any individuals.
[2.1] Define Risk Assessment
Risk assessment is defined as the measurement or estimation of potential risk associated
with any management system such as business organization health care field and other firms. It
can be either measured qualitatively or quantitatively (Risk Assessment, 2016). In health and
social care potential risks are associated with identifying hazards, potential loss and probability

of risk to happen is measured in risk assessment strategy (Dunn, 2015). Generally a five step
plan is adopted to assess the risk associated with any organizations. These steps gives a brief idea
about the different hazards related to healthcare organization and who is held responsible for the
same. Five steps have been mentioned below
Step 1: Identify hazards: Depending upon the organization it is very important to identify
the hazards so that they can be prevented in time. In the given case the sling incident could have
been prevented if the nurse who were handling the old age patient had information about the
exact size of sling needed to transfer the lady from one place to another (Singh and Sittig, 2015)..
Both the nurses must have managed the movement of lady properly so that the hazard would be
avoided.
Step 2: To identify the vulnerable victim: The victim in this case was the lady who
suffered injuries and succumb to death soon after she collided from the sling. To avoid such
cases in future it is the responsibility of healthcare professionals to properly train all the
individuals who offer care service to different service users.
Step 3: Assess the risks and take action: After this incident the South Birmingham
Primary Care Trust should adopt proper measures in order to avoid accidents with different
service users. They should organize appropriate training programs which will help the nurses and
other physicians to provide better healthcare services (Yassi, Lockhart and Spiegel, 2013).
Step 4: Make a record of the findings: It is the main duty and responsibility of the
managing officials to make a proper record of all the risk associated with the patients and other
health personals so that they can reduce the rate of potential risk in future.
Step 5: Review the risk assessment: After analyzing the risk associated in different sectors,
South Birmingham Primary Care Trust should take a proper charge of n safety of all the service
users so that the same incident is not repeated in future. This will help in reducing trust issues
related to patients which arises due to inefficient care services provided to the patients (Singh
and Sittig, 2015).

(2.2) Define Manual handling
The operations of manual handling is defined as transporting or supporting a load of
particular weight which can be lifted, pulled carried or moved ahead with the help of a hand or
by a force exerted by a body (Manual Handling, 2016). Several injuries take place during the
process of manual handling in health and social care (Morse, Bracker and Cook, 2013). This may
include twisting, bending or stretching of different body organs due to exertion.
Advantages and disadvantages of Manual handling
There are many advantages for an individual who has been trained for manual handling in
healthcare department. Due to improper manual handling there are many cases of injuries and ill
health which should be eradicated with the help of proper training and guidance (Dunn, 2015).
Various injuries caused due to improper body postures twisting, bending and excessive pressure
on the disc of the spinal cord. Different advantages of manual handling have been discussed
below.
 Manual handling is more advantageous as compared to mechanical handling because
machine involves tedious procedures and the rate of occurrence of injuries in mechanical
handling is more as compared to manual handling.
 A proper training and guidance is required when an individual is handling mechanical
tools to transport a patient from one place to another however major accidents and
injuries have also been reported in the cases of manual handling (Yassi, Lockhart and
Spiegel, 2013).
 Manual handling requires a greater extent of force to be exerted according to the weight
by the subject. Sometimes it is noticed that due to improper assessment of bodily weight
of a person several injuries takes place which also leads to death of the patient.
 If a person who is handling or supporting a patient in movement from one place to
another is not trained properly or do not have complete knowledge of different manual
handling skills then he/she is likely to encounter mistakes which leads to health accidents
and injuries (Al-Hazmi, 2013).
Manual handling as per case study

The main responsibility of all the hospitals and healthcare departments to manage
standards and quality of services so that the chances of injuries and incidents are minimized
(Singh and Sittig, 2015). According to the given case the NHS team was incapable of
maintaining the standards which resulted in death of an 90-year old patient Alice Belle. Care
standard act 2000 includes various legislations which are subjected to manual handling of
patients from one place to another. If the two auxiliary nurses who transferred the patient from
commode to the bed were experienced and well trained they would not have used large size sling
to move that patient from one place to another (Yassi, Lockhart and Spiegel, 2013). Due to
negligence and lack of knowledge they encountered the risk which resulted in death of the
patient. The Care standard Act not only focuses on increasing the communication system but it
also includes various legislations based on quality of drugs, equipments and machinery used to
treat patients in South Birmingham Primary Care Trust (Al-Hazmi, 2013).
According to the healthcare act, the organization should be responsible for providing
specific space to every patient in the hospital. They should be given complete access to all the
general requirements such as food, water and proper sanitary conditions in order to furnish
quality care services to all the service users (Health and Safety in the Health and Social Care
Workplace, 2016). All the doctors and other healthcare professionals who are assigned in South
Birmingham Primary Care Trusts should be well qualified to work without any supervision. If
they are at the position of trainee or medical interns they should practice their work under the
guidance and supervision of senior physicians and health professionals.
[2.3] Define Dilemma
It’s the need to choose from two or more available options that are present in front of
healthcare workers and patients (Murdoch, 2011). In this regard, Ethical dilemma is the one
where choice is to be made in between two options when neither of them may resolve the
situation in an ethically acceptable fashion.
There are certain needs and expectations of all the members associated with the
healthcare department. To meet the requirements of it is very important for the organization to
implement several systems and policies (Beets, Webster and Huberty, 2013). All the organization
implement different strategies and policies based on the budget of the hospital. Applying and
innovating different technologies will help in managing security systems and quality of the South
Birmingham Primary Care Trusts so that performance productiveness of health facilities is

enhanced. As Hospital has adopted different clinical guidelines they have successfully managed
all the activities taking place in the hospital. In order to monitor the activities and facilities given
to patients in the NHS, cameras have been installed which will help in checking if any error or
mistake has occurred (Cvach, 2012). This will help in enhancing the performance of the
employees, thereby decreasing the risk of injuries and death due to negligence.
The management team should also incorporate the systems of giving awards so that all
the employees are motivated to work in a better manner. Through several training programs the
standards and quality at workplace is also improved (Guest, Ricciardi and Lang, 2013). It further
helps in developing various skills such as self-learning work and time management. South
Birmingham Primary Care Trusts can also incorporate different evaluation process to evaluate
the performance and quality of all the workers so that it maintains the organization's name in a
positive way.
2.4 Effects of non-compliance with health and safety legislation in a health and social care
Workplace
When the healthcare organization do not comply with the health and safety legislations it
affects the quality ad standards of healthcare services provided to all the service users (Esperat,
Hanson‐Turton and Rupinta, 2012). It also leads to customer dissatisfaction which ultimately
have a negative impact on organization's name and brand.
 When South Birmingham Primary Care Trust is not able to protect and safeguard
different service users, they will not visit the same hospital again which will decrease and
reduce the image of hospital (Frieden, 2014).
 If the hospital do not organize various training and development programs for the all the
workers it will lead to increase the risk associated with patients and other members of the
hospital.
 For early recovery and proper health it is very important for all the health organizations to
maintain an environment which is peaceful and user friendly. If hospital management do
not focus on the environment of the hospital, the user will not find appropriate to stay and
avail the healthcare services from physicians and nurses (Harris and McCaffer, 2013).
 If the healthcare professionals and other doctors are not able to provide standard quality
of services to the patient then the service user is liable to take legal actions against the

healthcare centre or against the particular nursing staff.
 In the given case a 90-year old lady died due to negligence of two auxiliary nurses. The
relatives of Alice Belle reported a case against South Birmingham Primary Care Trust.
Based on the verdict, healthcare centre was charged of ransom penalty for negligence and
death (Singh and Sittig, 2015).
 If the organization fails to comply with rules and regulations of the healthcare systems
then it directly affects the quality, performance and management of South Birmingham
Primary Care Trust.
[3.1]
Monitoring can be defined as the process of supervising the activities so as to ensure there
progress in terms of their meeting of objectives as well as the stipulated performance targets
(Cvach, 2012).
All hospitals and healthcare centres develop different types of legislation and policies which
helps in providing a framework on how different activities should be carried on (Mohan, Grant
and McCormick, 2013). South Birmingham Primary Care Trust has also designed various
policies to enhance the performance but it is very important to monitor and review them.
 In many cases, it has been noticed that the management team of the hospital designs
effective rules and regulation to provide best quality services to the patient. As employees
do not comply with this regulation it affects the functioning of the South Birmingham
Primary Care Trust (Dunn, 2015).
 In the given case study, non-compliance of different rules and regulation lead to death of
the patient. It was the responsibility of physicians and doctors who were in-charge of the
lady to guide the two nurses properly.
 If proper instructions and communication would have been established between doctors
and nurses, this situation must have been avoided.
 It was necessary for the hospital team to provide necessary information about the size of
sling to be used for transferring patients from one place to another (Harris and McCaffer,
2013).

 It is very important for all the organizations to realise what are the basic requirements to
be fulfilled while constructing a new hospital or health care centre.
 If all the hospitals take proper care of various requirements it will directly enhance the
standards of hospitals and will decrease different types of risks such as injuries, accidents
and deaths (London, 2013).
3.2
Main aim of all healthcare organization is to provide better medical services an increase its
ale to enhance the productiveness of the hospital (Cvach, 2012).
 To increase the sales South Birmingham Primary Care Trust, it is very important for the
organization to follow certain rules and regulations which are designed by the
management.
 This will develop customer satisfaction which will further attract large number of patients
in South Birmingham Primary Care Trust (Yassi, Lockhart and Spiegel, 2013.
 For promoting different hospitals it is very necessary to comply with different rules and
regulation so that better healthcare services are provided to all the service users in the
hospital.
 If an organization does not follow healthcare legislations it will affect the name of
hospital and reduce the number of patients visiting South Birmingham Primary Care
Trust.
 Customer avails different types of services in healthcare centres to get treated of different
diseases but if the environment of hospital is not maintained properly then the patient will
not feel comfortable in getting treated in a particular hospital (Frieden, 2014).
 Following different policies and legislation in healthcare sectors helps in improving the
performance of all the employees. It also enhances the standards and quality of healthcare
facilities provided to all the service users which increases customer’s satisfaction level.
 Healthcare legislation and management also provides rewards systems to the employees
and other staff members so that they get motivated to work effectively (Ortega,
Rodriguez and Vargas Bustamante, 2015).