THE COMPLIANCE OF THE SAFETY AND HEALTH COMMITTEE (SHC)

IN THE HEALTHCARE FACILITIES WITHIN MINISTRY

OF HEALTH, MALAYSIA AND SELANGOR. Lasa I.,1 Gurdeesh K.,1 Juliana S.P.,1 Hazrin H.,1 Nor A.A. 1

1 Institute for Public Health, Ministry of Health Malaysia

Adrress for correspondence:

Dr. Mohamed Ismail Lasa

e-mail: drismaillasa@moh.gov.my

THE COMPLIANCE OF THE SAFETY AND HEALTH COMMITTEE (SHC) IN THE HEALTHCARE FACILITIES

WITHIN MINISTRY OF HEALTH, MALAYSIA AND SELANGOR.Lasa I., Juliana S.P., Gurdeesh K., Hazrin H., Nor A.A.

Institute for Public Health, Ministry of Health Malaysia

Abstract

Introduction : Establishing a safety health committee (SHC) in an organization is part of the legislation requirements based on

the Occupational Safety & Health Act 1994(OSHA).

Objective : This study focused on the compliance to OSHA 1994 with regards to implementation of SHC in healthcare facilities

in Ministry of Health Malaysia and Selangor,

Methodology : A cross sectional study involving the safety and health committee representatives of the SHC from hospitals,

dental and health clinics were chosen through systematic random sampling done in the year 2009. The analysis involved 739

questionnaires, whereby a 74.6% response rate was obtained. SPSS version 18.0 was used in the analysis.

Results : There was an overall positive response regarding compliance to OSHA according to the healthcare facilities. A

substantial 94.6% of the healthcare facilities had exhibited Worker’s Safety and Health Policy with more than 90.0%

respondents agreed that there were standard operating procedures and work processes that had been established in the

workplace. More than 79.0% performed audit within a year. Furthermore, more than half of the facilities held meetings over 2-3

times per year while an encouraging 89.4% conducted CMEs. Only 60.9% had conducted Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation

done within a year. We are still lacking in pursuing safety and health campaign by 36.8%. And, we are not very vigilance in

taking corrective measure (42.0%) and taking preventive measure (50.0%).. There was no difference in the performances and

compliances to OSHA by the healthcare facilities.The performance and compliancein Selangor was quite good.

Conclusion : The SHCs have fulfilled their role and function, and complied to OSHA 1994. However, to further enhance the

effectiveness on safety and health in the Ministry of Health, and Selangor we should promote more safety and health campaign,

be vigilance in doing preventive measure and taking corrective measure as well as improving the communication at all levels.

Keywords: SHC, OSHA, compliance , perception

Introduction

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) was implemented in 1994 in Malaysia. The Department of

Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), Malaysia and the Director General of Health Malaysia directed the

establishment of safety health and committees (SHC) within their organizations.

Section 30, Part VII of the OSHA 1994 which states that every employer shall establish a safety and health

committee at the place of work if there are forty or more persons employed at the place of work or if the

Director General directs the establishment of such a committee at the place of work. 1

Ministry of Health, Malaysia has established and developed the SHC. There are both employer and

employee representat ives in this committee. The discussions would revolve around occupational health

and safety aspects whi lst meetings should be held once in three months. 2 The SHC is an ef fect ive

communication method in developing occupational safety and health (OSH) at the workplace.

In Malaysia, not much research has been channeled into studying the implementation and ef fect iveness of

SHC within healthcare facil i t ies. In a study done in Kelantan which evaluated the compliance of health

facil i t ies to the OSHA 1994, it was found that certain organizational safety and health aspects needed

further improvement. 5

Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the implementation of the SHC in the healthcare facil i t ies

namely hospitals, health clinics and dental cl inics within Ministry of Health, Malaysia. The study also

determined the extend of the compliance OSHA 1994.

Methodology

There are 330 SHC established healthcare facil i t ies, Ministry of Health, Malaysia namely state

health departments(13), hospitals(106), distr ict health of f ices(132), health clinics(34), dental

of f ices(2) and dental cl inics(43) part icipate in this study (As shown in Appendix 1.)

The healthcare facil i t ies were then categorized into hospital, health clinic and dental cl inic. The

study populat ion consisted of 990 respondents who comprised of employer & employee

representat ives f rom the respective organizations. They had been appointed in the SHC in the

last six months and above.

This questionnaire was pre-tested for validity using reliabi l i ty analysis. The Cronbach alpha

reliabil i ty of the questionnaire was 0.87 for the current status of the SHC. Data was analyzed

using Stat ist ical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) sof tware version 18.0.

Results

A total of 739 (74.6% response rate) questionnaires were received f rom 990 respondents.

49%51%

Gender

Male

Female

79%

9%

4%

8%

Ethnicity

Malay

Chinese

Indian

Others

Table 1 : Socio-demographic profile of respondents

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

2.5

52.3

19.8 20.6

4.7 0.1

Education

5% 28%

26%41%

Age (years)

≤ 25

26 - 35

36 - 45

≥ 46

0 20 40 60 80

Job tenure (years)

≤ 2

3 – 6

7– 10

> 10

8.1

12.4

13.3

66.2

Job tenure (years)

Healthcare Facilities

Hospitals Dental clinics Health clinics Total

n % n % n % N %

Received certificate of

appointment as SHC member

from employer

Yes 116 35.6 33 31.1 157 51.1 306 41.4

No 210 64.4 73 68.9 150 48.9 433 58.6

Is there presence of Woker’s

safety and Health Policy at

workplace?

Yes 298 91.4 101 95.3 300 97.7 699 94.6

No 28 8.6 5 4.7 7 2.3 40 5.4

Frequency of SHC meetings at

workplace

(per year)

Once a year 160 49.1 63 59.4 81 27.4 304 41.1

2-3x a year 166 50.9 43 40.6 226 73.6 435 58.9

When was the last CPR

conducted at workplace?

< 1 yr 161 49.4 51 48.2 238 77.6 450 60.9

> 1 yr 56 17.2 20 18.9 30 9.8 106 14.3

Not done 109 33.4 35 33.0 39 12.7 183 24.8

Are posters on worker’s safety and

health exhibited at workplace?

Yes 270 82.8 72 67.9 259 84.4 601 81.3

No 56 17.2 34 32.1 48 15.6 138 18.7

Table 1: SHC status according to healthcare facilities

The last fire drill conducted at workplace?

< 1yr 155 47.5 52 49 237 77.2 444 60

> 1 yr 84 25.8 37 34.9 45 14.7 166 22.5

Not done 87 26.7 17 16.0 25 8.1 129 17.5

The last CME on occupation health conducted at

workplace?

Not Done 46 14.1 13 12.2 26 8.5 85 11.5

1x year 56 17.2 15 14.2 48 15.6 119 16.1

2-3x yrs 224 68.7 78 73.6 233 75.9 535 72.4

Was safety and health audit conducted last years?

Yes 253 77.6 80 75.5 255 83.1 588 79.6

No 73 22.4 26 24.5 52 16.9 151 20.4

Did SHC take corrective measures on

nonconformance ?

Agree 102 34.6 37 37.8 150 52.1 289 42.5

Disagree 62 21.1 24 24.5 44 15.3 130 19.1

Did SHC take preventive measures?

Yes 186 57.1 60 56.6 122 40.7 368 50.3

No 140 42.9 46 43.4 178 59.3 364 49.7

Was worker’s safety and health campaign

conducted since last 1 year ?

Yes 111 34.0 27 25.5 134 43.6 272 36.8

No 215 66.0 79 74.5 173 56.4 467 63.2

Is SOP/work procedure present at workplace?

Yes 263 82.4 89 88.1 280 92.7 632 87.5

No 56 17.6 12 11.9 22 7.3 90 12.5

Has any accident occurred at workplace?

Yes 182 55.8 68 64.2 215 70.0 465 62.9

No 144 44.2 38 35.8 92 30.0 274 37.1

Is emergency exit plan present at workplace?

Yes 264 81.0 100 94.3 286 93.2 650 88.0

No 62 19.0 6 5.7 21 6.8 89 12.0

95.4

95.3

93.9

91.2

86.5

86.5

84.8

83.1

83.1

80.4

72.2

58.9

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Chart 1 : Matters discussed during the meeting

Health Promotion

Audit

Research on Occupational Health

Medical Check up

Welfare

Basic life Support (CPR,drill)

Fire Drill

Trainings (Occupational Health)

SOP

PPE

Notifications (Disease)

Notifications (injuries)

Finance

Overall

83.4

78.3

72.4

71.1

68.6

67.8

60.3

57.1

49

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

General

Chart 2: Topics that are covered in the posters at the workplace

Safety and Health Act

Notification Procedure

PPE

Safety and Health

Backpain

Ergonomics

Accident in the workplace

Hazard in the workplace

Injuries in the workplace

45.3

63.1

84.1

95.8

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Chart 3 : Accident report and measure taken in handling accidents by the SHC

Accident occurred at workplace

Investigations on accident

Awareness regarding needing to fill form when accidents occur

Preventive measure taken by the SHC

overall

68.6

71.6

94.3

94.6

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

1

2

3

4

5

6

Chart 4 : Safety and Health Policy in the Workplace

Exhibition of Policy

Agreeing with the Policy

Agree that the policy can be used for all staff

Understand the Policy

Diagram 1 : Medical Checkup conducted according to different states

Diagram 2 : Audit conducted within 2 years by State

Diagram 3 : Percentages of total respondents agreed that steps/measure

have been taken by the SHC to overcome faults found during audits by state

Conclusion

All the essential components were incorporated by the SHC in the different health care settings as per this study which is in

concordance with the OSHA 1994. The strong point was the policy stated since 1996 were still in placed and SHC was quite

active. We were very strong on CME, audit but not for promoting occupational safety and health campaigns. Similarly, on

corrective measure and preventive aspect . These play a vital role in enhancing safety and health among the healthcare workers.

Apart from that these can be considered as proactive measure in prevention and reoccurrence of an accidents and diseases at

workplace. We need to benchmark our performance so that we can asses our performance either we are very active, active or

less active.

Recommendation

A database for the baseline information on the current status of the SHC in the MOH can be established via this study as findings

can be utilized as an evidence-base for policy makers and stakeholders to increase their awareness and to develop more

constructive modules and programs on the SHC. This research can be used to review and further strengthen the existing

strategies of the SHC in the MOH towards building a safety culture within the organizations. This beneficial data can also act as a

tool for further comprehensive research in the near future.

THANK YOU