Working together 'key' to successful health & safety - Scottish HSE director tells nurses' forum - 26 April 2007

The Director of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in Scotland, Stewart Campbell, has highlighted to nurses the importance of working together to reduce accidents and ill health.

Whilst there is a downward trend in recent years in the incidence of ill health and accidents resulting in workers taking three or more days off work, the latest figures (2005/06) show 160,000 people suffered from an illness which they believe was caused or made worse by their current or past work, and 9,556 employees suffered over three day injuries in Scotland.

Speaking at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Occupational Nurse Forum Scotland today, Mr Campbell welcomed the trend, but stressed the need to work together to maintain the downward momentum. He outlined the importantance of links between a range of organisations bringing together HSE, local authorities, employers and employees to reduce incidence rates.

Mr Campbell outlined the work of the Partnership on Health and Safety in Scotland which brings together all the main stakeholders in the country to identify and consider how improvements to health and safety in Scotland can most effectively be delivered.

He also emphasised the importance of organisations taking a management approach to health at work which enabled problems to be dealt with at source and managed positively to keep people in work. He said it was important in the workplace to stand back and take a broader view of the issues affecting health and safety, and to integrate the various factors involved when resolving a specific problem. The same was true when looking at problems which could arise both at work and from domestic and leisure activities, such as bad backs.

Stewart Campbell said:

“You as individuals, together with your managers and colleagues have a crucial and joint role to play in reducing workplace health and safety problems. Every organisation should have effective systems in place to monitor and improve health and safety. Organisations can benefit hugely from a better understanding of how different health and safety issues are interlinked and how their solution needs a joined up approach.”

The RCN Conference, entitled ‘Making the Right Connections’ brought together hundreds of nurses to look at occupational health and provide an opportunity for them to engage with colleagues in the profession and share ideas on practice, management, education, and research in the field.

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