Page 162 - HA Convention 2015

Parallel Sessions

PS1.2 System and Practices on Prevention/Management of Workplace 09:00 Theatre 2
Violence

Tuesday, 19 May Prevention and Handling of Workplace Violence — Experience of the Hong Kong Police Force
Chow CF
Occupational Safety and Health, Hong Kong Police Force, The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

While a broader definition of workplace violence may include physical and psychological abuse, sexual harassment,
bullying, and mobbing committed by internal staff or external non-staff members, the speaker applied a more restricted
definition from the latest European agreement to focus on workers or managers being assaulted in circumstances relating
to work. Moreover, this presentation is concentrated on external workplace violence, which occurs between staff and non-
staff members. Studies conducted in different countries found that police officers are having the highest risk of workplace
violence, and healthcare workers ranks the second.

Workplace violence prevention should form an integral part of the organisation’s overall safety and health management
strategy, which includes policy formulation, risk assessment, prevention and control, training, aftermath care and support,
and monitoring and evaluation. Risk to workplace violence is contributed by environmental factors such as access control
and workplace layout, and personal factors like mental state of customers and context of staff/customer encounters.
Control measures for the former may include barrier between staff and customer, and escape route. Measures to mitigate
the latter may include staff training on screening customers and defusing hostile situations, and revising job design,
emergency procedures and complaint handling procedures. Finally, each incident should be investigated and fed back to the
management for prevention of future recurrence.

The Hong Kong Police Force has implemented safety and health management for a decade. Since its injury on duty cases
are mainly caused by assaulting, its experience in prevention and handling of workplace violence provides an invaluable
reference for those organisations providing services or healthcare sectors that wished to improve the protection of their
employees. The speaker will highlight the work performed by the Hong Kong Police Force in different stages of safety and
health management which may be of interest to the healthcare sector.

PS1.3 System and Practices on Prevention/Management of Workplace 09:00 Theatre 2
Violence

HOSPITAL AUTHORITY CONVENTION 2015 Workplace Violence Prevention and Management in Hospital Authority
Lee WK
Psychiatry Department, Kwai Chung Hospital, Hong Kong

The Hospital Authority (HA) is committed to developing a safe and healthy working environment for their staff complying
with the Hong Kong Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) legislation. In addition, the statutory provisions of the HA Bylaws
protect our staff against workplace violence (WV).

WV prevention and management is of paramount importance in HA as staff is our most important asset. Governance
structure is in place in hospital, cluster and corporate level to ensure necessary attention. Appropriate resources are
deployed for WV management. The HA WV Working Group is established with representatives from clusters for the
development of anti-WV strategies, continuous monitoring and review of their effectiveness.

Staff members are engaged in the hazard identification process, development and implementation of risk assessment
scheme and safety guidelines. Trainings are organised to equip staff with necessary knowledge and skill in the prevention
and management of WV. To take care of staff’s wellbeing, hospitals have established Critical Incident Support Teams who
are trained staff volunteers to provide peer support to staff experienced WV. Their psychological need will be further taken
care by clinical psychologist if needed. Furthermore, electronic reporting system is in place for direct and timely report of WV
incident or injury-on-duty, and data collected is useful for case analysis for future improvement. WV legal prosecution will be
initiated via the police or HA Bylaws where necessary.

HA has been using various means in both internal and external platforms to increase staff and public awareness on WV,
and will continue to strengthen its WV prevention and management strategies, enhance staff empowerment through various
trainings, and increase our support to staff during WV incidents.

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