The
Health and Safety Executive has failed to make the working conditions in the UK
safe, claims a leading occupational medicine consultant in this month’s issue
of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
St
Mary’s Hospital’s Dr Harry Waldron writes that the HSE has been a “great
disappointment” and occupational health services available to staff in the UK
are “patchy at best”.
He
believes that delays in treatment are worsening work-related disabilities.
Waldron
calls for the government agencies to ensure that company directors and board
members face the prospect of a jail sentence if health and safety laws are
broken.
A
typical patient with work-related back pain might wait six to nine weeks for
specialist treatment by which time their chances of returning to work would
have been halved, claims Waldron.
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By
Mike Broad
