Organisational Major Incident Health Risk Assessment / Support
Occupational Health Specialists have significant experience in supporting organisations, including blue light organisations, manage the aftermath of operationally related major incident events, using systematic risk / evidence-based approaches through a multidisciplinary team approach and which can include partner service suppliers.
Usually by prior arrangement and supported through defined major incident planning / COMAH or safety case arrangements, SOHS will seek to provide appropriate expertise in order to help organisations manage the likely and foreseeable physical / psychological health risks potentially encountered in any organisational major incident event.
A major incident is any situation, whether as the result of an immediate or prolonged incident that requires the implementation of special arrangements by one or all the Emergency Services. Examples that this may include:
- Response to a natural or man-made major or catastrophic incident event
- A known Chemical, Biological, Radioactive, Nuclear (CBRN) contaminant being identified or deliberate release being imminently threatened
- The rescue and transportation of a large number of casualties of whatever origin requiring the large-scale combined resources of the Police, Fire Brigade and Ambulance Service
- The mobilisation and organisation of the emergency services and support services for example, local authority, to cater for the threat of death, serious injury or homelessness to a large number of people
Occupational Health specialists are often required to provide advice to senior organisational personnel in regards to the nature of potential health hazards, mitigating factors and occupational health response during and after an incident.
Pre & Post Deployment Health Risk Assessment
On occasion, exceptional health and safety risk is encountered by employees during forward deployment scenarios, particularly blue light services and disaster recovery operations. Toward the successful mitigation of risks to health and wellbeing during such deployments, SOHS have developed the ‘Pre & Post Deployment Individual Health Risk Assessment’ intervention.
The assessments are designed to:-
- Help identify and manage underlying employee health conditions before they can contribute to a significant / acute health event during deployment activities
- Ensure employees are fit to travel, undertake deployment activities and when they return fit to return to pre-deployment duties.
- Protect the health and wellbeing of the individual
- Protect operational capabilities and efficiencies
- Help ensure that underlying health conditions are not impacted by occupational exposures during the deployment.
- Ensure that potential occupational health risks are identified and managed.
The ‘pre and post deployment’ Individual Health Risk Assessment is designed to complement existing operational risk assessments and help assure medical fitness for demanding deployments from both a physical and psychological risk perspective.
Travel Risk Assessment (MASTA)
When travelling abroad for work, employers have a duty to ensure their employees are protected where possible against disease process endemic to the point of travel.
SOHS have partnered with MASTA a trusted and respected travel medicine specialist. MASTAs clinical team constantly monitor disease situations and outbreaks across the world, bringing together health information from many sources. The result is that the Travel Health Brief / Risk Assessment is widely recognised as an invaluable tool both to medical professionals and employees alike, ensuring employees are appropriately vaccinated / protected against endemic and communicable disease where appropriate.
The Travel Health Brief provided for each individual traveller ensures they are fully aware of the additional health risks of travelling to their destinations.
