Posted By Andy Dear all, Do you record ULD's as accidents, and record them in your accident book and statistics, or not record until they are reportable? Any comments of discussion would be appreciated. Andrew.

Posted By Robert K Lewis Andy I presume you mean Work Related ULDs. In which case by definitionn these are the result of repetitive injury and cannot be defined as an accident - Thus they are they are recordable as an accident. However you need to record them and analyse as they suggest that your processes may need review, after all if there is an occurrence of WRULD risk assessments need review. Bob

Posted By Andy Many thanks for the responses so far ,as always your thoughts are greatly appreciated. Jo, I agree, recorded, although not necessarily in the accident book, and acted on. Robert, you presume correct, could you clarify your response, ? WRULD's are not accidents, not recordable as such but should be recorded in some way and acted on? Ian, Thanks for that, I was referring to internal reporting and recording for acting on investigating, statistics and so on. Regards Andrew

Posted By Andy Bob, Thanks for the reply. This area seems a little grey! We obviously have to record WRULD's and act on the findings etc, but as to whether it is an accident or not? An accident is an unplanned event leading to loss. Does it differ if it is a number of events? What about acute RSI, I had a chap suffering after a couple of hours work. If he had pulled his back it would have been recorded as an accident. If an UPD, it would not. What is the definitive answer, if there is one our there at all. Thanks for the responses so far, they are appreciated, however, do only 3 people out there have an opinion or knowledge on this?? Regards Andrew

Posted By sylvia This dilemma (and the mixed views resulting) is one of the reasons the true status of occupational ill-health is so vague. Historically, ill-effects arising from cumulative wear&tear have NOT been reported in the only reference used for "safety" monitoring - the accident book. They are often only reported via a range of medical specialists, and even if the organisation has an occ health service, is it "joined-up" with the safety service for such monitoring? Nowadays as so many larger organisations in particular have amended the concept of 'the accident book' into reporting forms, there is more scope for collating all types of incident and injury / ill-health data from these. My own experience was that ULD / RSI (whatever - aches & pains) were NOT reported except via the OH service, maybe, who treated this as confidential. Then we'd get a solicitors letter, and a very unhappy (often absent for many weeks even) employee. Someone needs to investigate the circumstances of any (alleged) work-related injury - if there is no trigger mechanism for this (as with 'accidents') an organisation is badly placed to defend any claim, should it even come to that. My own organisation - with such a problem - eventually devised a very specific form just for DSE related symptoms. Whilst not an ideal solution especially for those who dislike the 'form for everything' method, it did highlight the issue to managers and staff, and encourage a more integrated approach with the OH service. Surprise, surprise, reported cases increased! After it had been around 3 or 4 years, it was integrated back into the standard incident reporting form, which was more generally worded so as to include such conditions.

Posted By Jo Scott Smith Sylvia I'd be really interested in seeing a copy of the form that you now use to incorp ULD reporting into your accident reporting system. I'm in the process you describe of ditching the accident book and having our own internal reporting. Could you email me a copy please. Thanksyou in anticipation. JO

Posted By Penny We record and monitor ULD's on our dse assessment form. Staff who have ULD's are high risk and are monitored on a regular basis, usually monthly, to make sure their symptoms are not getting worse. They also get referred to our occ health team who visit our site every month. The doctor then sends us a report and advices us on what equipment to give them, i.e wrist rest. Hope this helps.