Annual Report and Accounts - The Great Western Hospital

The Musculoskeletal Disorder team and the Occupational Health team including physiotherapy input
have worked closely together to carry out workplace assessments along with early intervention
treatment.
Over the past 12 months there has been a very clear correlation between the number of referrals
received within Occupational Health from line managers and the number of staff off sick. For example
in December there was a dramatic fall in referrals and a marked increase in sickness absence,
compared to January, where there was a high number of OH interventions and a noted fall in
sickness absence numbers.
9.10 Swine / Seasonal Flu Vaccinations
The seasonal Flu campaign obtained a 26% uptake across the Trust in 2010, but, with recent national
media coverage featuring the Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health 2011 resulted in
39.5%.
9.11 Health and Safety
During 2011 we commenced implementation of a suitable safety management system throughout the
combined geographical area. Notable improvements are already being appreciated by staff, visitors
and patients across the enlarged trust and a new governance structure has been implemented with
monitoring via the Trust and Wiltshire Health and Safety Committees and regular progress reports to
the Executive Committee.
Major targeted improvements have included:
• Implementation of new Safeguard Incident Management system across Wiltshire and
commencement of an electronic incident reporting process across all sites within the enlarged
Trust to speed up and improve quality of reports and investigations.
• Roll out of a comprehensive H&S Audit programme across all Wiltshire sites to benchmark
current compliance with legal / Policy H&S requirements and to provide clear improvement
advice to all departmental managers.
• Fire safety management improvements in reducing unwanted fire signals at GWH from 35 last
year to 22 [against a target threshold of 32] in partnership with Carillion and also providing a
comprehensive fire safety warden structure and training programme throughout the enlarged
trust.
• Sustained performance in serious RIDDOR reportable accidents for GWH which remain at 9
for the year and introduction of a centralised RIDDOR reporting requirement across Wiltshire
instead of manager self reporting. This has resulted in 7 RIDDOR incidents being reported by
the H&S Department from Wiltshire over the past year.
• Introduction of a comprehensive H&S Representative training programme for the newly
appointed department Reps and Department Managers throughout the Wiltshire sites.
• Amalgamation of Wiltshire and GWH Policies and procedures accessible via a new versatile
H&S Intranet web page.
Please note that the Trust has disclosed information on the above as required under the
Companies Act that is relevant to its operations.
Page 155 of 211