PDF (A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for ...

Medical Intervention
GPs and Primary Care Trusts may operate as mechanisms providing health
and safety advice (empowering workers to change problematic situations,
reduce hazards and report symptoms, (Jackson, 2004). Health and safety
advice provided in the area of primary care may serve to increase awareness
among individual workers and lead to demands to change workplace
attitudes (Jackson, 2004). This has been the experience of two occupational
advisory services. Qualitative analysis indicates that workers who received
advice from health professionals did request health and safety related
changes in the workplace which were put into place. However, a number of
employees failed to report health and safety concerns of discrimination
against them or lack of an available appropriate member of staff. The
establishment of occupation health schemes in GP surgeries may contribute in
raising awareness of work-related disease amongst clinicians and patients.
More importantly such schemes may help health and safety at work by
providing constructive advice to patients on how to reduce risk. Although
results are promising there needs to be further evaluation of similar schemes
to confirm and generalise their effectiveness. One question that may need to
be addressed is whether the short-lived nature of employment in SMEs
would weaken the ability of such interventions to bring about lasting
improvement in the workplace. The issue of fears over victimisation after
complaints about health and safety standards also need to be addressed.
Psychological factors that may be important in predicting health and safety
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