(c) MRSA Action UK June 2008
15th October 2008
Springfields Fuels Ltd, Westinghouse Safety Forum
at The Red Rose Hub,
MRSA Action UK attended Springfields Fuels Ltd, Westinghouse Safety Forum. The event covered both safety in the workplace and outside the working environment. MRSA Action UK held three interactive breakout sessions to give information about healthcare infections. Our breakout session looked at high, medium and low risk industries. Airlines and the Nuclear industry are perceived as high risk, but because of the systems of working and strong safety culture, they are in fact low risk in terms of being harmed. Not surprisingly the NHS came out as high risk, although not everyone perceives this as high risk. We were able to give a lot of information about the types of infection that can be acquired in and out of the healthcare setting and give information on what needs to be done to make the healthcare experience safer. There was a strong emphasis on the importance of hand-hygiene, which was timely as October 15th was Global Handwashing Day.
Springfields Fuels were winners of RoSPAs Manufacturing Industry Sector Award in 2008. The company are based in
- over 1 million working hours since the last reportable accident
- 26,756 behavioural safety observations
- 1,186 near miss reports that give opportunities to act and avoid accidents
This year the focus of the Safety Forum was on Road Safety and some very hard hitting and moving presentations were given on the tragic loss of life to Road Crashes. The Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety are running the Wasted Lives Education Programme. Delivered by Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety facilitators, the programme consists of a full day dedicated to challenging new and soon to- be young drivers' attitudes to the risks associated with driving. It develops better understanding of the potential and very real consequences of taking risks behind the wheel that may save lives. Springfields Fuels apprentices have worked with the partnership and given valuable feedback on the programme. Details can be found at http://www.safe2travel.co.uk/more_info.asp?current_id=156
The campaign features the tragic loss of Matthew Hannon aged 22 who died in a car crash near to his home. His parents Ann and Terry Hannon attended the Westinghouse Safety Forum where the film giving the devastating and personal account of what happened was shown. They said "If we save one life through the film, it will be worth it". The message was to parents to advise and encourage young drivers not to take risks.
Mr Ayman Jundi, Consultant in Emergency medicine from the Preston & Chorley Prehospital Emergency and Trauma Team (PETT) spoke about picking up the pieces from road crashes.
The Hospital Trust has a legal obligation to go out to accidents. The PETT provides a service over and above this duty and adds value to the well-being and safety of people who need to be treated at the scene. The highly skilled team are volunteers and have raised funding as a charity. They often have to work in cold, wet and dark conditions and have to improvise and compromise. The PETT train with the Fire Service using a simulator, which is a hi-tech crash dummy costing 300,000 pounds, they have two.
The team provide life-saving prehospital treatment. The Golden Hour after trauma injuries is crucial in giving care, but the team do what they can in the Platinum Ten Minutes, ideally they would hope to have a person out of a situation where they are trapped within this timescale, but sometimes it is not always possible.
In 2001 there were 3,443 people killed in road accidents and 37,094 seriously injured. This number of deaths is equivalent to a Lockerbie air disaster every month.
With deaths and serious injuries rising we are now experiencing an epidemic of road crashes, with young men in particular, and we wish the Wasted Lives Education programme every success and would encourage workplaces, high schools and colleges to promote this with young or inexperienced drivers.
MRSA Action UK would like to thank Westinghouse for the opportunity to participate and share best practice in safety.
