Carry the Weight

My grandson has recently been gifted a large quantity of ‘00’ gauge model railway track and rolling stock.

It was my duty to collect the prize from the generous donator and deliver it to my keen and excited grandson.

The goodies came in a large cardboard box and, on opening the boot of my car, my grandson immediately tried to lift the full box. It was far too heavy for him.

I conjectured that there was enough track to re-construct the East Coast Mainline! Before he hurt himself in his eagerness to lift the box, I offered him sage advice to remove contents a few pieces at a time. This he did, starting with the most treasured, a tray of carefully wrapped locomotives, including the Flying Scotsman. After 10 minutes or so the box was emptied and no harm was done, other than to my daughter, who had to figure out where to store this new hoard.

On a recent audit of a care home I was probing about the risk assessments for manual handling activities.

I was amused with the answer that ‘manual handling’ was now illegal and the term should not be used!

As I pondered this surprising statement, considering if I had missed a drastic re-direction of legislation, I realised that the respondent was referring to the moving and positioning of people, and had picked up and slightly misinterpreted this skewed advice from a training course. After explaining that I was fully aware of the needs for lifting and positioning plans etc. in moving and positioning people, the point of the questioning was towards more basic tasks of moving and handling objects.

In a residential care or nursing home, often, the concentration of effort is, and rightly so, the safety of resident service users..

There is a large number of tasks that may expose staff to injuries when lifting or moving heavy objects.

• To identify the tasks that may lead to injury, it may be easier to consider each facet of a care home operation in turn.

• In housekeeping staff may need to move furniture such as beds, and they have to handle used and clean linen, often adopting poor posture to retrieve the bedding from shelves in linen cupboards.

• In maintenance there may be the handling of heavy ladders, or other equipment. If the maintenance chores include gardening, then there are other possible risk exposures from handling gardening equipment, waste vegetation, even paving slabs.
• In the Laundry, again there is a need to handle loads into and out of washing and drying machines and transporting clean laundry to the rest of the home.

• In the Kitchen the risk exposure is from handling heavy pans, and trays, and handling bags of vegetables, etc. So, as you can see, there are numerous risk exposures to manual handling injuries to staff.

Many of the tasks listed above cannot be avoided. However, with the benefit of risk assessment, there may be ways and methods of mitigating the risks. The risk assessment should consider:

• The task itself - how frequently it is done, carry distances, handling above shoulder height or below knee height,
• The individual conducting the task - is the task within their capabilities,
• The load itself - the size, weight, shape, awkwardness, can a grip be maintained, etc.,
• The environment - is the lighting adequate, is the floor dry, are there extremes of temperature, etc.

The following Arinite one page and Arinite’s should be of help.

Many innovative devices are now available to reduce or eliminate the need for excessive manual handling and these should be considered as part of the control measures from the risk assessment.

As I write this BLOG, we are in the grip of the Covid-19 epidemic.

The government advice regarding hand washing has long been a standard way of life for those who work in the care sector as part of the infection control management system.

However, I met an acquaintance in the pub which I usually frequent on a Friday night and he showed me his hands that were red and sore, he said through hand washing.

There is a risk of developing dermatitis from excessive washing of the hands. When the hands are washed, the natural oils of the skin are removed and the skin can become dry, chapped, and start to crack. By all means continue with frequently washing your hands, but also frequently use a hand cream following washing.  

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Arinite clients appreciate we provide practical, no-nonsense advice about what you need to do to establish and maintain a safe and healthy working environment. Our team of health and safety consultants take pride in keeping health and safety simple.

If you need to call upon our expert assistance, or just for an informal chat, please call our office 0207 947 9581, or type an enquiry on our contact page.

Kevin Irwin