health&safety

There seems to be a worrying trend on campus. Lately I have noted that the emergency assistance call outs for ER24 ambulances are for minor conditions like twisted ankles or stomach cramps. The first aid responders are not remaining calm and are not thinking through the range of basic first aid responses to address the call out issues. Lets consider last nights incident for example; the basic first aid for a strain or sprain would have been R.I.C.E- Rest affected limb, Immobilise, Cold compresses, Elevate the affected limb. Surely these steps with some basic pain relief would have helped the student to remain stable through the night until he/she could go to a GP in the morning. Now consider the cost of an ambulance call out (R1500- R3500) €€€€€+ a Trauma unit consult fees of R5000 or more depending on the treatments prescribed. We then have a better understanding of how panic impacts the University. we also need to consider the value to cost ratio of providing costly first aid training to personnel who are not using these skills as intended. a study of the reasons for these emergency call outs for minor cases will help to identify problems in the system €+ help us to engage with the UCT community to find better solutions. Watch this spot for further developments, safety greetings.

Dear Colleagues, Visitors, Students

The SHE Dept is very excited to announce that in April we have a week of safety activities planned at selected venues on Campus. As soon as the venues are confirmed, I'll be blogging, tweeting & facebooking the info to all of you. We hoped to have secured all of our venues by now, but you know what a squeeze it is to try to get a teaching or lecturing venue on Campus. So at this point we are busy bees zipping about getting the posters, flyers, speakers, exhibitors and all the other safety gurus lined up to provide you with a sweet week of safety info and fun from 23 - 26 April. Don't forget that the 27 April is a public holiday and therefore our safety "week" only has 4 days. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, give us your feedback and ideas. We would love to hear your thoughts and implement your safety suggestions.

https://twitter.com/SHEDeptUCT/statuses/173036206026788864

The Safety Health & Environment Dept (SHE) are very excited to finally, be on the blog scene. We hope that you will find the blogs useful and interesting. Some very useful facts that you may not be aware of about the SHE Dept.:- (1) We have an advisory role on campus and are willing to assist you with health and safety matters pertaining to occupational safety, (2) the Occupational Health Unit forms part of the SHE Dept and conduct occupational safety medicals which are specific to the risks related to certain high risk activities of certain job functions/work performed by UCT employees. These medicals are based on an Occupational Risk Exposure Profile (OREPs), (3) We conduct risk assessments, safety audits and offer free safety related workshops on Campus. The SHE Dept has a network of voluntary safety personnel who help us by being our eyes and ears across campus. These safety volunteers are permanent UCT employees who have been appointed as either a Safety Rep (SHE Rep), a First Aider or an Evacuation Marshal within their Faculty or Dept. In order to ensure that these volunteers are equipped with the basic knowledge and skill to assume their voluntary functions, the SHE Dept funds accredited training during working hours to ensure that the University, the Volunteer and the UCT Community benefits - in essence a win-win situation. We have some very exciting safety events planned for the year and I'll be blogging some more about these details in time to come. If you would like some more information about the SHE Dept, our services, the training/workshops on offer or would like to view our monthly safety newsletter (SHEQ Mate), please follow the link and join us on our safety journey. http:///www.ohs.uct.ac.za Safety Greetings...    

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