Mitigate, prepare, respond, and recover. Business resilience Part 4

Part 4 in our series on business resilience

Summary:

In this final article in a series on the contribution of occupational health to business resilience, occupational physician Paul Nicholson discusses the principles of disaster management and OH professionals’ responsibilities to support businesses in preparing for, and managing responses to, multiple-casualty situations that could occur in any workplace.

 

The UK is a stable democracy, that has a temperate climate and a mostly stable terrain; however, businesses that operate in the UK are exposed to natural and man-made hazards and malicious threats that risk endangering business continuity and workers’ lives. Every business should assess the risks prevalent at each of its operations, using a multidisciplinary approach to plan and prepare for every foreseeable situation, ranging from the most likely events to the worst-case scenario. Occupational health (OH) professionals have an especially important part to play….

Paul Nicholson is an occupational physician, past chair of the BMA Occupational Medicine Committee and a past president of the Society of Occupational Medicine. During RAF service he participated in a nuclear accident response organisation, military aid to the civilian authorities, helicopter search and rescue and military air show emergency teams. At ICI he looked after COMAH sites on Teesside, and at P&G he audited OH capability at European sites including for emergency preparedness.

Author: Nicholson P

Tags emergency services injuries at work mental health ptsd - post traumatic stress disorder trauma

Occupational Health at Work February/March 2021 (vol. 17/5) pp25-31

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