What about my health? An assessment of how the health and safety issues of health workers are addressed

Abstract

Hospitals are established to attend to the health needs of people as well as to treat the injured and the sick. However, health workers are sometimes faced with occupational health and safety issues which give a bad image to the socio-economic importance of the hospitals. This study assessed how the health and safety issues of health workers in the public health facilities of Ghana are addressed. Using the experience of the Achimota Hospital, a sample of fifty-three (53) health workers were randomly selected from the laboratory department, dental department, x-ray department and the various wards. The study observed that chemicals, noise, heat, communicable disease and patient aggression are the safety and hazardous issues entangling health workers and must be looked at carefully. The study also observed that the measures adopted by management in addressing the safety concerns of the workers are the provision of safety materials, the establishment of a compensation strategy, the formulation of a safety policy, and organization of training programs and durbars. The study concluded by making recommendations to management, health workers, patients and the government on how the health facilities can be made safe to protect the life of the workers and clients.

Keywords: Health and safety, health workers, public health facility, health and safety policy