Can someone more used to selling baked beans boost the health of staff in the NHS? Clare Chapman, former HR boss at Tesco, and now NHS workforce director general is about to introduce some private sector style health promotion which might ruffle the feathers of die hard occupational health traditionalists in the NHS ranks.
Chapman has hired wellbeing consultancy Vielife to deliver two-year pilots in 10 NHS trusts. The link of health and wellbeing with productivity will raise some OH eyebrows. The NHS OH group are often seen as quite different culturally from their business-minded peers in the private sector, even by their own colleagues. Observers of the Jiscmail forum will have noticed that infection control and health assessment questionnaires tend to get more airplay than pedometers and healthy eating. They might ask if a NHS stuggling to keep hospitals free from bugs like MRSA should be focusing on dispensing healthy eating pamplets.
Chapman has the government's backing though. Dame Carol Black, in her recommendations on work and health earlier this year, called for the public sector to lead by example in improving the health of the workforce. And it is difficult to argue against an intervention which could cut NHS absence rates. Provided that Chapman's pilots do not take funds from basic risk management they should be welcomed.