Chairing the IOSH Healthcare Group - June 2006 to November 2008

We met today at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh - my last day as the Chair of the Europe’s largest group of Chartered Safety and Health Practitioners, the IOSH Healthcare Group. And next month, I become the first Chartered Safety and Health Practitoner from the NHS/independent healthcare, to join the IOSH Board of Trustees.

Members of the IOSH Healthcare Group work in the NHS/Public healthcare (63%), independent healthcare (9%), for ourselves (6%), consultancy/insurance (5%) and other (17%). Our 1,604 members account for 4.7% of the IOSH membership (33,500) and 0.0008% of healthcare employees in the UK and Ireland (2 million).

Many thanks to the Committee - we have achieved a lot since I became Chair of the Healthcare Group, 30 months ago (June 2006). Here were a few of the highlights:

953 people attended one of our 1-day conferences. These were held at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (238 delegates), Rose Court, London (120), Wesley College, Bristol (116), St James Hospital, Dublin (100), IOSH Leicester (91), University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust (86), Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (73), Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (60), POSK, London (37) and Central Birmingham (32).

Speakers came from the All Wales Manual Handling Group, Building Research Establishment, Chief Fire Officers Association, Department of Health (England), Healthcare Commission, HM Fire Service Inspectorate, HSA (Ireland), Health and Safety Executive, HSE Laboratory, Health Service Executive (Ireland), IOSH (The Grange), MRSA Reference Laboratory (Ireland), NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Services, NHS Lothian, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, OHSAS (Scotland), Solicitors (Hammonds and Morgan Coles), Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory (Wales), Universities (Nottingham and Stirling) and the Welsh Assembly Government.
349 Healthcare Group members responded to the Healthcare Group questionnaire in July 2006. Members responded that they were satisfied with Group and their feedback directly shaped the Group’s 2007-2010 business plan.

140 local meetings were organised by members of the Healthcare Group. These meetings were organised by our 4 Sections (in Ireland, Northern Ireland, North West England, Scotland) and 6 Affiliate Groups in London, South East, South West, Wales, West Midlands, Yorkshire.

5% versus 34%. In 2007, the number of Strategic Health Authorities, NHS Trusts and PCTs in England reduced from 527 to 348, accompanied with compulsory and voluntary redundancies. Mergers of NHS organisations took place in Scotland and Wales too. While the number of organizations was reduced by 34%, the number of Healthcare Group  members declined from1689 to 1604 (5% reduction).

Other highlights included SHPs being featured in the NHS60 celebrations at Wembley and on YouTube (July 2008). I Chaired HSJs first NHS Risk Management Conference in Birmingham. HSE launched healthcare waste guidelines at our Event in December 2006. We work with key strategic partners including NHS Employers, Department of Health (England), Welsh Assembly Government, HSE, NHS Security Management Service, National Performance Advisory Group, British Occupational Hygiene Society, NHS Core Learning Unit.

We were ranked the best of IOSHs 16 sector-specific Groups in the IOSH Corporate Survey (April 2007). The 3752 responses were verified by www.parn.org.uk  We ranked excellent at the triannual internal IOSH review undertaken by the Groups Management Committee (September 2008)

This brings to an end my 16 years working at national level in NHS occupational safety and health. Initially as a Board Member of the National Association of Safety and Risk Practitioners (1992-1999), Editor of Risk Reduction in Healthcare (1995-1998), Committee Member of the IOSH Healthcare Group (1999-2006) and Chair (2006-2008)

I have thoroughly enjoyed my 30 months as Chair of the IOSH Healthcare Group. During this time, I took the opportunity to leave the NHS after 16 years service, to be an independent consultant in governance, risk and safety. I am thankful to the many people that I worked with. And in particular, Darren MacDonald (Vice-Chair), Chris Beadle (Events), Douglas Blair (Web and Communications), Margo Campbell (Improvement), Emma Kirton (Partnership), Paul Roberts and Jan Worthy.

Darren McDonald and the new Healthcare Committee will achieve much more in the  months to come. They have my full support in taking the IOSH Healthcare Group forward.

This entry was posted on 06/11/2008 at 08:55 pm and is filed under Patrick Keady, Safety, NHS, Health and, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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