FORTH and TAY DISTRICT
13th meeting: Gateway Centre, North Methven Street, Perth: Thursday 3rd April 2003. Attendance:
of
EDINBURGH BRANCH
IOSH
Apologies: Richard Lovering Dave Devey Neil Doherty Liz Croghan Joe Brannigan Andy Fowler Bob McDonnell.
1: Chairperson: Kirsten Paterson.
Kirsten opened the meeting at 7.30pm and welcomed all present, including new members to the 13th meeting of the District. Members and guests were informed of the fire alarm and evacuation procedure. Kirsten also asked that all attending should remember to fill in the attendance register. The programme for the meeting was outlined as District business first, our guest speaker for the evening followed by tea/coffee and chat to colleagues.
2: Minutes of the previous meeting
Kirsten asked if all had received their copy of the last minutes. All had received copies. The minutes of the last meeting were passed as true and correct.
Proposed by Dick Mann and seconded by Robin Greer.
3: Correspondence
Kirsten reported that some correspondence had been received mainly from Branch regarding the official recognition of the Forth & Tay District including a letter from IOSH president, Eleanor Lawson.
4: Branch Liason report
She then asked for a District /Branch Liaison report from Karen McDonnell. She said that branch had requested next year’s programme and that additional funding was available.
Kirsten asked if there were any issues that members would like to raise or areas of concern that they might like guidance on. She stressed that this was an important function of the meetings and is an ideal opportunity to gather information.
5: Future programme
She then announced the industrial visit to WCF Potatoes on the 5th June 2003, meeting at the site 2.30pm for 3pm. Places were limited to a maximum of 10 on a first come basis. The visit will be followed by high tea for those members wishing to partake at their own expense. An attendance list and directions were available.
After June the District breaks for summer, re-commencing on Thursday 4th September when Bruce Reekie from SEPA will be giving a talk on waste management.
6: Guest speaker
Kirsten then introduced the guest speaker, Dr David Imlah from Scottish Power who gave a presentation on occupational health entitled "Happy, Healthy and Here".
Dr David Imlah, Deputy Group Medical Adviser for Scottish Power plc, gave a presentation entitled "Happy, Healthy and Here" in which he covered:
He briefly outlined the history of OH in Scottish Power and concentrated on the significant gains which resulted from the reorganisation of OH some 4 years ago against the background statistics produced by the CBI and HSE which scope the size of the occupational ill health costs in the UK.
As a guide, an accident in the water industry costs about £8500, a case of HAVS £11498, and a case of WRULD £5251.
A key statistic to remember is that the cost of a single case of occupational ill health is about eight times the cost of an accident.
When considering sickness absence due to MSD or back pain, if a worker is off for 4-12 weeks continuously there is a 10-40% probability that they will still be off work a year later. In other words, lack of intervention in back pain to get people back to work increases the likelihood of long-term disability from work. The value of proactive OH intervention in that type of illness alone can save money, as can convincing back pain sufferers that if examination shows no significant injury that they will not exacerbate their condition by going back to work before the pain has been eliminated.
Another illness benefited by early intervention is stress, which costs some £376 million to UK business per year and 6.7 million lost working days (HSE figures based on 1996)
Scottish Power had changed from offering a reactive service concentrating on first aid and treatment, hearing screening and wellness screening pre-1998, to a service providing:
These services were underlain by upstream thinking, an intranet offering training and interactive learning and awareness, and proactive engagement at all levels. The results include estimated sickness absence cost savings of £6million, reduced Employers’ Liability insurance premiums, improved compliance and a broad understanding of OH issues across the company.
The interests of manager, employee, and the company all have to be catered for if an occupational health scheme is going to be supported and effective. The expected outcomes are improved health, happiness, morale and productivity combined with lower business costs, reduced sickness absence and downtime. Providing impartial advice to all stakeholders in total confidentiality is key to success. The Scottish Power OH service relies on attendance at OH consultations, clinical examinations, monitoring and reports advising on fitness for work rather than on a counselling approach.
The OH charter specifies that in Scottish power OH are responsible for:
Management is responsible for:
Employees are responsible for attending consultations with OH and co-operating according to consultative agreements with the workforce.
Dr Imlah said that two significant and persistent challenges were; maintaining medical confidentiality when pressurised by management and overcoming employee suspicion that they could be disadvantaged by attending OH. Both these challenges required continued effort to overcome.
Management referrals could be due to DDA implications or through employee consent.
Self-referral could be confidential, through anonymous management referral or without a management report.
In the diagram following, Italicised services are considered as "nice to have"
Services in Bold are sensible and cost effective to provide
Underlined services cover legal minimum requirements
The OH Pyramid
Help line
extras
wellness screening (well man/woman)
health promotion (c.f. SHAW)
Team leader communications
workplace assessments
rehabilitation
monitoring health damage
pre-employment medicals and pre-exit medicals
identifying at risk groups
first aid training, provision, and treatment service
In summary, the OH service offered:
A number of questions followed which revealed that:
The provision of Physiotherapy is a treatment bottleneck that can be circumnavigated by a well-organised OH scheme
7: Vote of thanks
After the presentation a vote of thanks was proposed by Barry Davies and Dr Imlah was presented with a gift and card in thanks.
The meeting closed at 21.00 with the next meeting being the annual industrial visit on Thursday 5th June
Dave Devey | Kirsten Paterson Chair |