Posted By Steve Ireland Just a quick query. How do other people view non treatment accidents (accidents which require no treatment)? For example, an operative attempts to lift a bag of produce and feels a twinge in her back. Knowing that lifting the bag could make the situation worse, she doesnt attempt to lift the bag. I was having a conversation with one of our site managers and he said that he wouldnt report this to me as an accident (as in his view no injury was suffered and so this is a near miss). I disagree in that she actually felt a minor twinge and whos to say that she hasnt just developed a health problem which will get worse in time. On a similar vain, how do people treat accidents that dont require first aid treatment at all? For example, an operative drops something on their hand but suffers no injury. Again, the manager said that he wouldnt report it due to no injury. Again, I disagree.

Posted By Debbie Shepherd I agree with Mike, although no injury was sustained, this is still an incident that warrants investigation to ascertain the exposure to the hazard and to decide whether existing control measures are sufficient to prevent an actual injury. Prevention being better than cure! My company has 4 levels of classification for incidents, the minor category covers both non injury and most first aid cases. We actively encourage reporting and have very good management support. I had a similar one recently where a person tripped over but managed to break their fall sufficiently well to avoid even a bruise but we still captured as a minor injury. We have a near miss system too, which could have been used for such an event (the same investigation takes place, so we get to the same end point), however, if a person asked my advice I would ask them to raise as an incident form (we use the same form for injury incidents, environmental etc but a separate one for near misses). All I can say is perhaps this manager needs a refresher on the principles of accident prevention and perhaps a reminder that MSDs are not normally the result of a one off injury but as a result of repetitive movements/tasks. If we have the opportunity to investigate when a person notices a twinge to their back or similar, then we have a better chance of preventing something more serious and lost time through severe back strains/slipped discs etc. Would the manager prefer to wait till the employee calls in saying he has 2 weeks signed off sick? Hope this helps