HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE WORKPLACE

Health and Safety in the Health and Social Care Workplace



Health and Safety in the Health and Social Care Workplace

Introduction

The issue of health and safety is considered as the most controversial one at the workplace. It deals with ensuring the health, safety, and welfare of the employees and workers working for a organization. The main purpose of the policies and procedures associated to occupational health and safety is to make sure that the working environment is safe and healthy to work on daily basis. The health and safety laws and regulations in Britain are based upon the health and safety at Work Act 1974. This act is comprised of the general duties and responsibilities that a employer possess in ensuring the proper health and safety of the staff. HSE is the main regulator of the health related issues in the health and social care sector. It oversees and implements the related policies and procedures in both private and public health care and social care organizations throughout UK.

The employers and employees both are obliged to follow and implement these rules related to health and safety particularly those that are working in health and social care organizations. These employees are usually held responsible for taking care an d well being of patients and general public therefore, it becomes their foremost important duty to adapt a framework at work that is safe and healthy in every way. There are many policies and procedures as described by health and safety executive pertaining to the aforementioned topic that shall be discussed in detail throughout this paper such as policies and procedures related to using equipment safely at work, sharp injuries, moving and handling, scalding and burning, violence at workplace, controlling infection among employees at workplace, fire and electrical related safety issues etc (HSE, 2013, pp. 1).

Discussion

Communicating Health and safety Information

Communication is an important tool to convey and understand the necessary requirements and needs of health and safety standards and related issues in a work setting. It is considered an effective tool to get the work done efficiently. There are different forms of communication in health and social care setting specific to the operations and standards of works in the organization. Every successful decision is a result of detailed analysis and good communication and understanding among employees and general public within health and social care sector. The main priority should be to make sure the availability of all necessary information is gathered and conveyed to all employees and individuals involved in the process of treatment or a particular task such as care provision, assessing or planning an operative procedure, delivering social care services ad allocating necessary resources and related processes.

In order to make most of the use of information; it is necessary to present it in a readable and understandable form that is readily accessible to all significant personnel at work. This should be the sole responsibility of information and communication networks or units within the ...