To continue reading please register or login to your OHW+ account.
In the world of occupational safety and health, it is unfortunate that health is often perceived as the poor relation of safety. With the introduction of Controls Assurance, however, the NHS now has in place a system to manage all aspects of safety and health and to comply with corporate governance requirements. Controls Assurance is a key element of the Government's modernisation programme for the NHS.
Developed as a response to the Turnbull report, it is designed to provide evidence that NHS organisations are doing their reasonable best to meet their objectives and to protect patients, staff, visitors and other stakeholders against risks. It requires NHS directors to review the effectiveness of their systems of internal control and to state they have done so in the trust's annual report.
The Healthcare Specialist Group at Iosh recently organised two seminars dedicated to Controls Assurance. Led by Stuart Emslie, head of the Controls Assurance team at the NHS executive, these events outlined the project and examined, through the risk management system and health and safety management standards, the role of safety and risk professionals in the Controls Assurance process.
Is health and safety part of risk management? Should the risks associated with the care of patients be managed separately from the risks that face staff in the workplace? These are two recurring questions that were asked during the seminars.
A recent survey of 420 NHS organisations, showed 48 per cent of them have either a fully integrated approach to the management of patient care-related risks and non-patient care-related risks, including health and safety, or are actively working on such an approach. The Controls Assurance agenda aims to empower NHS staff to manage risk in their workplace and it is part of the NHS's broader agenda for the 21st century.
This is essential as there are significant issues facing the NHS and Controls Assurance over the next few years, including the Human Rights Act, infection control, patient food, the Disability Discrimination Act, the management of patient information, emergency planning and transport.
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health represents 25,000 safety and health professionals in industry, commerce and the public sector. Tel: 0116-257 3100; www.iosh.co.uk
