NHS struggles to slash levels of staff injuries

1 May 03
Failure to cut the number of injuries to staff is costing the NHS millions of pounds a year, the National Audit Office said this week. The government set national improvement targets in 1999 for the NHS to reduce incidents of violence to staff, accide

02 May 2003

Failure to cut the number of injuries to staff is costing the NHS millions of pounds a year, the National Audit Office said this week.

The government set national improvement targets in 1999 for the NHS to reduce incidents of violence to staff, accidents and sickness absence by 20% by 2001 and 30% by 2003/04.

However, in A safer place to work, the NAO said average sickness absence rates remained above target. In 2001/02, the overall numbers of recorded incidents of violence and aggression increased by 13% and recorded accidents by 24% against the previous year.

Only 23% of trusts met the national target of a 20% reduction in these incidents.

Moving and handling and syringe injuries were the main causes, but work-related stress was a growing problem. More than two-thirds of trusts reported an increase in the past three years.

Sir John Bourn, the head of the NAO, said increased awareness and better reporting mechanisms had contributed to the rise in incidents. He added that in some trusts better training and practices had reduced the number of incidents. However, under-reporting was a significant problem in all trusts.

The auditor-general estimated the direct cost of accidents to be £173m but the true cost would be substantially more once staff replacement, treatment and court compensation awards were taken into account.

There were substantial hidden, human costs, including low productivity and staff turnover.

'More needs to be done to reduce the number of staff accidents in NHS trusts. Good progress has been made but too many trusts are still not implementing good practice,' Bourn said.

He added that the new national electronic staff records should include reasons for sickness absence and a methodology should be developed to calculate the cost of accidents.

Commons Public Accounts Committee chair Edward Leigh said the NHS was 'failing dismally' to reduce accidents.

He added: 'The NHS must tackle this problem head on. I will be looking closely for evidence that the NHS is seriously committed to producing and acting upon a national health and safety strategy which would co-ordinate existing and new initiatives.'

PFmay2003

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