Background
The Centre for Workplace Health (CWH) was launched in 2005. This
national centre of excellence builds on an existing tripartite
agreement between the University of
Sheffield, the Health and Safety Laboratory and the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals
NHS Foundation Trust dating back to 1997. The skill mix
of the partners afforded an opportunity to establish a
multidisciplinary 'Centre for Workplace Health'. In doing so, we
have moved the emphasis away from the academic discipline of
Occupational Medicine to the partnership approach for Occupational
Health delivery. The Centre hosts the largest group of
occupational health specialists in the UK delivering high
quality research, training and advice.
Since 2015, CWH has a new combined medical team for delivery of
medical resource for HSE and external customers. We strongly
believe that focus on the 'health' in health and safety is
important; to develop solutions to prevent ill health, to keep
people healthy and at work and to sustain regulatory
excellence.
The team carries out a variety of work, eg the occupational
health physicians (Drs Forman and Halliday-Bell) and other
healthcare professionals work with policy colleagues on health
matters and provide specialist support to operational colleagues.
They liaise with various sectors in HSE, providing technical
expertise. Recent examples include revision of the approach to the
medical examination and assessment of commercial divers, and new
guidance relating to health surveillance for silica-exposed
workers. Staff also coordinate the national appointed doctor
system, a large network of doctors who carry out medical
assessments and examination of workers under certain regulations,
such as lead asbestos and commercial diving.
Respiratory,
occupational health, musculoskeletal and exercise physicians
(Professor Fishwick, and Drs Barber, Poole and Till) offer advice
and support to all parts of the organisation, and have a
long-standing track record in applied workplace health research,
teaching and training. Research is carried out to provide simple,
practical workplace-based solutions. We all regard health-based
research as a front-line activity, so that simple practical
solutions can be found for common workplace problems. Recent
examples include research into the causes and prevention of health
problems caused by respirable crystalline silica, foundry work and
wood dust-exposed work.
CWH is a multidisciplinary team providing a health focus and
unique way of working across traditional organisational boundaries
and disciplines. Alongside the medical team, CWH comprises of
HSE staff that include occupational scientists, an occupational
research nurse, epidemiologists, statisticians and support
staff.
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information.
Contact us
+44 (0)1298 218607 or e-mail cwh@hsl.gsi.gov.uk