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July 27, 1999
Occupational Health and Safety Agency for Health Care in British Columbia: Progress Report
1. Meetings
The Occupational Health and Safety Agency for Health Care (OHSAH) has met five times since February 24, 1999 and three days to interview for the positions of Chair and Director. Meetings have been attended by Cathy Ferguson, depending upon availability, and Sharon Saunders.
2. Structure
A. We have drafted a constitution, by-laws and an investment policy and are in the process of setting up a bank account. Five hundred thousand ($500,000) initial funding from the government has been transferred in Trust to HEABC until we are able to get an Agency account established.
B. We are in the process of leasing space in the same building as the HLAA with the intention of sharing some resources in order to reduce costs.
C. The Directors of the Agency are contained in Attachment A.
D. We have hired a Director, Dr. Annalee Yassi. Annalee is a Professor at the University of Manitoba and the Director of their Occupational and Environmental Health Unit in Winnipeg. She has also headed the Health Sciences Centres' Occupational Health and Safety Department for about 10 years. She is an internationally recognized researcher in Health and Safety (H&S).
Annalee is retaining her position with the University of Manitoba for the time being. The Agency has three years of funding guaranteed and she would like to be more certain of its future before breaking her ties with Manitoba.
E. We have hired the Chair of the Agency, Geoff Walsh. Geoff is currently Chair of the HLAA also. He had been with St. Paul's Hospital for about six years and was seconded to the Vancouver/Richmond Health Board in 1995 and was with their Human Resources Department until 1997.
3. Initiatives
A. Strategic/Business Plan:
We are developing a strategic/business plan for the Agency and have critiqued a first draft which was presented at the last meeting by Annalee.
There was considerable discussion on the plan, particularly around Item 4: Identifying Structural Barriers. The union representatives were clear that we need to identify and overcome structural barriers to good health and safety, not merely utilize return to work programs. We expect that this section, in particular, will be re-worked extensively.
The Agency is conducting a two day retreat in September in order to analyse the results of the needs assessment and to develop our strategic plan. Both Cathy Ferguson and Sharon Saunders will attend. |
B. Needs Assessment:
We will be conducting a needs assessment in health care concerning OH&S. A written survey is being developed by a sub-committee of the Agency. This survey will go out to all worksites (approximately 800). Management and union representatives will be filling out separate surveys at each site.
A telephone interview will be conducted with union and management representatives from 200 facilities. These sites will include all the major ones, all worksites with very high injury rates and a sample of the rest.
BCNU will send out a notice to all Occupational Health and Safety Stewards to let them know that the survey should be coming to their worksite soon and that the unions are to agree on how/who should respond to the questionnaire and be interviewed.
We have had extensive discussions on the draft needs assessment. A few of the questions are designed to assess "psycho-social" issues in health care that contribute to injury/disease. The employers objected to assessing issues such as job satisfaction, employee consultation, labour relations, etc. The unions and Annalee were clear that these types of issues were very important in establishing a safe and healthy workplace and need to be assessed. |
C. Project Endorsement/Funding:
A sub-committee was struck to develop a proposal for criteria the Agency will use to assess project proposals for either endorsement or funding. |
D. OH&S Conference in B.C. for Health Care:
We discussed having a conference on Health and Safety in health care in B.C. Originally we were looking at this Fall but many individuals felt that this was too early. We will continue to discuss this initiative. |
Attachment A : Directors
| Name |
Affiliation |
| Rick Lampshire |
HSA |
| Jackie Spain (alternate) |
HSA |
| Cathy Ferguson |
BCNU |
| Sharon Saunders (alternate) |
BCNU |
| George Heyman |
BCGEU |
| Mona Sykes (alternate) |
BCGEU |
| Chris Allnutt |
HEU |
| Ruth Herman (alternate) |
HEU |
| Jane Lindstrom |
CVIHR |
| Pat Doyle |
Okanagan-Similkameen Regional H.C. |
| Annalee Yassi |
Director |
| Geoff Walsh |
Chair |
| Mike Arbogast |
HEABC |
| Gary Moser |
HEABC |
|
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