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Occupational Health
The year has been a notable one in the field of occupational
health both nationally and locally. The Committee of
Inquiry set up in May 1970 under the chairmanship of Lord
Robens to enquire into health and safety in industry,
reported in the summer of 1972. The recommendations of
this Committee for improving occupational health, hygiene
and safety were based on evidence from over one hundred
organisations concerned with industrial health and safety
and this Report may well form the basis of future
occupational health and safety legislation. The Medical
Officer of Health and Occupational Physician gave written
evidence to this Committee via the National Association
for Mental Health and this evidence is reproduced as an
appendix.
The Employment Medical Advisory Service (EAMS) Bill
was debated in Parliament and received the Royal assent in
the autumn, and will become law on the 1st February 1973.
This Act abolishes the present Appointed Factory Doctor
service staffed by approximately seventeen hundred
doctors, mainly general practitioners, and replaces it with
an Occupational Medical Advisory Service staffed by
specialist occupational physicians. The new Employment
Medical Advisory Service will be available to employers,
employees and any person who has an interest in
occupational health. It is to be hoped that this Service will
form the nucleus for a National Occupational Health
Service. The EAMS is, however, to remain within the
Department of Employment for the foreseeable future and
it is to be regretted that the Service will not become part of
the National Health Service when the latter is re-organised
in 1974.
Occupational Health is the most recent of the health
disciplines and is a development of the last two decades in
the United Kingdom. In the past and to some extent today,
Occupational Health services, their compass, aim and staff
have been subjects of controversy in this country. The
pattern that is gradually emerging is that occupational
health comprises two major disciplines: Occupational
medicine, which is concerned primarily with man and the
influence of work on his health; and occupational hygiene,
which is concerned primarily with the measurement,
assessment and control of man's working environment.
(Schilling 1972). These two disciplines are complementary
but occupational medicine will be the concern mainly of
doctors, nurses and medical auxiliaries while occupational
hygiene will in the main be practised by hygienists and
engineers and only to a limited extent by medical
personnel.
It has been estimated by medical politicians that to
provide a comprehensive national Occupational Health
Service, over one thousand occupational physicians and
several thousand occupations! nurses would be required. At
present the facilities for training and sponsoring of doctors
and nurses wishing to make a career in occupational health
are inadequate but are improving. It seems that there is a
need for a number of more highly trained occupational
health nurses to act in a feldsher capacity in group and
community occupational health services. Also for public
health inspectors to receive training in industrial hygiene
and to liaise with occupational health physicians and
nurses to a greater extent.
The organisation of the Occupational Health Unit at
Hounslow was set out in detail in the 1971 Report. The
occupational health work falls naturally into three
divisions: Staff health, student health and local industrial
health.
The Staff Health Service
The service continues to be increasingly used by the
Council's staff. Clinics are held three times each week at
the Bath Road Health Centre and consultations at other
times. The number of consultations in particular, show a
considerable increase over the 1971 numbers and as
percentages are: medical consultations increase 30%,
nursing consultations increase 92%. Because of the
additional time taken by consultations fewer occupational
health visits were made. It is hoped that with the help of
an additional occupational health nurse next year this
imbalance will be rectified.
Several minor occupational hygiene hazards were
investigated in the Council's workshops and offices, and
advice was given to management on their control.
The Council as an employer of staff has an obligation
under the Factory and Offices, Shops and Railway
Premises Acts to provide trained first-aiders for its
workshops and offices. Two certificate first-aid courses
were organised and thirty-four persons obtained the British
Red Cross Certificate of proficiency. Three one day
courses for Park Department employees of Ealing,
Hillingdon, Harrow, Richmond and Hounslow were held at
the Gunnersbury Park Centre in January. A one day
revision course for the Council's first aiders was held for
the first time in June and the treatment of simulated
casualties, arranged by the Casualties Union, proved very
helpful in teaching first-aid personnel how to cope
effectively in the accident situation. It was gratifying to see
more staff from the school and colleges attending these
courses, for while these institutions are not subject to the
provisions of the Factory and Offices Act, the need for
staff with good first-aid training is very evident.
A number of occupational health lecture discussions
were held during the year for inservice training of Health
Department staff. Occupational health nurses from
industries in the area were invited to two of these sessions,
and the ensuing discussions on industrial accident
prevention, and occupational mental stress proved of value
and interest. A group of nurses from the Royal College of
Nursing visisted the Occupational Health Unit as part of
their practical experience in training for the Occupational
Health Nursing Certificate. The Occupational Health
Physician gave a series of lectures to doctors studying for
the Diploma in Public Health at the Royal Institute of
Public Health and Hygiene, and also several lectures to
senior nursing staff attending the management course at
Chiswick Polytechnic.
The Student Health Service
Student Health Service for local authority colleges are a
recent innovation and the London Borough of Hounslow
has been one of the pioneers in this field. Because many
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