Trust Board papers November 2012 - Barking Havering and ...

Proactive risk assessment enables the Trust to identify actual or potential hazards or
threats that may or may not have resulted in actual incidents and ensure adequate control
measures are in place to eliminate or reduce the risk of harm occurring. From this
information, the Trust can assess whether or not there are sufficient precautions in place
or if more needs to be done to mitigate the risk in order to prevent a particular harm or
threat materialising. Proactive risk assessment also fulfils the Trust’s statutory obligations
in terms of Health and Safety risk assessments.
Under the management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992, employers are
required to make a “suitable and sufficient” assessment of the risks to the health and
safety of employees whilst at work as well as the risks to non employees as a
consequence of work activities.
Ongoing proactive risk assessment will minimise the likelihood of both patient safety and
non-clinical incidents occurring and supports safety improvements across the
organisation.
Range of Internal Inspections
There are a number of internal inspection processes carried out by specialists such as
Infection Control or Fire Safety Officer and where risks are pro-actively identified. There is
a requirement for all services to carry out a quarterly Health and Safety Inspection and
ensure improvements are made if indicated.
Nursing and Midwifery Audit
There are monthly visible leadership audits undertaken in patient areas. The audits are a
proactive way of measuring compliance with High Impact Actions for Nursing and
Midwifery and Essence of Care. Action plans are developed and implementation
monitored by the Nursing and Midwifery Board
Self Assessment of Risk
Upon identification of an individual risk at any time a staff member can complete a generic
risk assessment proforma or one of the specific non clinical assessment proforma’s which
are available on the Trust’s intranet site. The risk will be reported to and discussed with a
line manager and scored using the Trust risk scoring matrix. Action plans will be
developed and the risk will populate the Risk Register and be escalated in line with the
Trust risk escalation process. If immediate action is required steps must be taken to
mitigate the risk in the short term whilst longer term plans are implemented. If a staff
member has concerns regarding the practice of another employee of the Trust, they
should raise their concerns using the Trust Raising Concerns Policy available on intranet
Evaluation of National Reports
As key reports are published appointed members of staff will be directed to review the
content to evaluate the relevance of the report and standards that will be required of the
Trust. This includes deficits in compliance with a range of standards
such as Maternity or any of the National Inquiry reports such as those into Peri-Operative
Care or Maternal and Child Deaths. It also includes Independent Inquiries where risks are
identified that apply to services within this Trust including those that relate to
Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults, clinical services and health and safety.
Barking, Havering & Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust Page 14 of 40
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