Manual handling

AFTER THE COMMON cold, bad backs are responsible for most lost time at work. Indeed, figures suggest up to 80 per cent of us will suffer some sort of back problem during our lives.

The NHS spends more than £500m a year treating this affliction and business experiences millions of lost working days a year. A great deal of these bad backs are attributable to people not undertaking what is known as “manual handling” properly.

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations (as amended) 1992 define manual handling as: “…any transporting or supporting of a load (including the lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving thereof) by hand or bodily force.”

Injuries
Poor manual handling can lead to a number of injuries, including damage to discs, nerves, muscles, tendons and ligaments. It can also lead to hernias, fractures, cuts and
abrasions. The Manual Handling Operations Regulations require that all manual-handling operations that involve a risk should be avoided if possible. However, as we all live in the real world, this this is not always possible; for example, it is often necessary to lift animals on to an examination table.

So, manual handling operations that cannot be avoided and carry a risk of physical injury should be assessed, with the resulting risk assessment being used to reduce the risk of injury as much as possible. The assessment should take into account:

• The task involved: are you moving or lifting equipment or live animals, for example?
• Individual capacity to perform the task: is it too heavy or awkward for one person? Do you need two people to distribute the load?
• The load: what are you carrying? Is it bulky? In the case of animals, will it resist or attempt to bite?
• The working environment: will it be crowded? Will you have to go between different floors, for example?
• External factors: is there anything else that will affect the safe undertaking of the task?

The following are some basic, yet effective, suggestions for manual handling:

• Assess the load before commencing lifting and plan through the lift.
• Be aware of your capacity to lift the load. Do not be afraid to involve more people if you think you need to.
• Make sure the area around the lift is clear of obstructions.
• Stand with your feet apart and adopt a good balanced posture.
• Take a secure and comfortable grip, look out for sharp edges.
• Keep your back straight and bend your knees. Don’t use jerky movements; lift smoothly.
• Use your leg power to make the lift easier.
• Keep the load close to your body, avoid bending, stooping or twisting.
• If you tuck your chin in, this will help to keep your spine straight.

It is worth remembering that you do not need to do risk assessments for every single piece of manual handling you will undertake in your practice, as this would very quickly become an unproductive use of time. Rather, you are looking to filter out and identify those undertakings that could pose a genuine risk to you and your staff.

By involving your staff and/or any nominated health and safety persons within the practice, you will quickly identify areas where you need to take action and will form solutions to those problems.

An effective risk assessment procedure will help to reduce the occurrence of accidents, which in turn can reduce exposure in areas such as enforcement action, insurance premium rises and compensation claims.