Earlier this year, WorkSafe began a trial program of health industry-specific inspectors known as the Integreated Industry Pilot Health Team. This followed many years of ANMF lobbying to both WorkSafe Victoria and the Victorian government.
The year-long trial is ensuring that when WorkSafe inspects breaches of the OHS Act in health workplaces it does so with inspectors who have a background in or relevant knowledge of the healthcare industry. The 10 inspectors who are part of the pilot program are also focusing solely on the healthcare industry.
The teams are primarily based in Ballarat, Geelong and Melbourne, but also doing outreach work in other regions as required.
Halfway through the pilot, ANMF has so far been receiving positive feedback from members.
Veeresh Chikkamath, a Health and Safety Representative (HSR) member at Austin Hospital, recently had to issue a notice and call in WorkSafe.
‘It was very straightforward,’ he says. ‘It was easy to communicate with them, and we didn’t have to explain as much what the issue was: they understood immediately the problem and how complicated it was. It helped to speed up the process of seeking a solution.’
ANMF Branch Councillor and Veeresh’s nurse unit manager Adrian Spinelli agrees.
‘From my perspective,’ he says, ‘the easiest part of the process was that because both inspectors had experience in the healthcare sector they already had an understanding of patient care, and of the clinical environment, and of challenges that occur with different patient presentations. We didn’t have to spend another hour explaining what a nurse does in X situation as a baseline.
‘They asked of the organisation some really appropriately probing questions,’ Adrian adds. ‘So when they were speaking to our OHS manager and our operational managers they were talking about escalation of patient care, they were talking about the relevant structures within the organisation that should be able to provide support – because they knew that in a healthcare setting these supports should be in place.’
Significantly, Adrian notes, both inspectors ‘had an understanding of the limitations of what staff felt they could do in the environment’ while also understanding that they wanted to provide the best care in a challenging situation.
‘I think that’s one thing that kind of gets missed with nurses and midwives,’ he clarifies. ‘We are at the forefront of occupational violence and aggression (OVA) because we care, and we want to be there to provide support to that person or that patient. We want to meet with family, to have those difficult discussions or to support them. And unfortunately, then we may be subjected to OVA.’
This often-overlooked aspect is something that WorkSafe’s healthcare-specific inspectors ‘really understood’, Adrain notes.
‘I think after seeing that,’ he concludes, ‘my colleagues feel more empowered as well.’
Aim to reduce injuries by 20 per cent
The pilot program is a result of a new WorkSafe strategy that aims to reduce fatalities by 30 per cent and injuries by 20 per cent. ‘To achieve these goals, WorkSafe has key actions which include increasing specialisation targeted at priority industries,’ says Perdita Dickson, WorkSafe Victoria’s health team senior manager. ‘The health team is a pilot to test how WorkSafe can implement this key action.’
Perdita says WorkSafe’s goals for the program include:
- to improve health and safety in the health and aged care industries not only through compliance and enforcement but also through other regulatory levers such as awareness and education
- to improve engagement with employers, employees and health and safety representatives
- to show that the multi-disciplinary team – with inspectors, strategic program leads, human factors and ergonomic specialists and psychological health and safety specialists – is a model that can support WorkSafe achieve the aims in the strategy.
Like ANMF, WorkSafe has so far been receiving positive feedback about the pilot. ‘The main feedback is that our team is more informed on the health and aged care industries,’ Perdita says. ‘This means that we are making deeper enquiries during visits and that our other interventions are better informed on what we are learning from industry. For example we have been able to initiate and create safety alerts far quicker for these industries then previously.’
The WorkSafe pilot program continues until December, and based on continued feedback from our members ANMF will be lobbying for it to continue indefinitely.
