Bethesda’s WSH Services
Bethesda Workplace Safety & Health (WSH) Unit provides solutions to the occupational health and safety services required in your workplace. We strive to work with your company in improving and maintaining the company’s occupational health and safety standards. Our medical centre is well equipped with comprehensive screening and diagnostic facilities to conduct assessment for fitness to work, health screenings, occupational and statutory pre-placement and periodic medical examinations, as per Ministry of Manpower (MOM) requirement or other occupational health standards. We also conduct health education and training programmes for companies, and provide assistance to aid your company in fulfilling statutory requirements by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and other occupational health standards.
What is Workplace Safety & Health (WHS)?
Workplace health and safety (WHS) relates to workplace health, safety, and welfare issues. It includes reviews of the laws, standards, and programmes that aim to make the workplace better for workers, customers, and stakeholders. Improving a company’s occupational health and safety standards ensures good business and brand image, and ensure higher employee morale. Workplace health and safety addresses different types of workplace hazards, including:
- Chemicals hazards
- Physical risks
- Biological agents
- Psychological conditions
- Ergonomic issues
- Accidents
Employers and company management should and are obliged to provide a safe working environment for their employees.
Pre-employment / Periodic medical examination
Pre-employment medical examinations and periodic medical examinations will help determine whether an employee is fit to perform his job without risk to himself as well as others. It will assess his suitability for the work scope and identify pre-existing medical condition, including chronic conditions, congenital conditions and infectious diseases.
Fitness to return to work examination
Workers returning to work after a prolonged or serious illness / injury may pose a hazard to himself or others. Our Designated Workplace Doctor will discuss with your company regarding the work scope and job requirement, assess the individual’s medical and health conditions, before making recommendations to your company.
Statutory Medical examination
Workplace Safety and Health (Statutory Medical Examinations) Guideline requires workers who are exposed to certain health hazards during their work to undergo pre-placement and regular periodic medical examinations.
The hazards requiring Statutory Medical Examinations include:
- Arsenic and its compounds
- Asbestos
- Benzene
- Cadmium and its compounds
- Work in a compressed air environment
- Raw Cotton
- Lead and its compounds
- Manganese and its compounds
- Mercury and its compounds
- Noise
- Organophosphates
- Perchloroethylene
- Free Silica
- Tar, Pitch, Bitumen and Creosote
- Trichloroethylene
- Vinyl chloride monomer
If your employees are exposed to any of the above hazards, you are required to perform a pre-placement examination, as well as regular periodic screenings to monitor the health condition of your employees.
Occupational diseases occur as a direct result of exposure to physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic or psychosocial factors in the workplace (Table 1). These may occur as individual or combined exposures.
- Hazardous Factor Adverse Health Effect or Other Outcome
• Mechanical risk factors – Occupational accidents and injuries
• Physiological strain and heavy physical work – Musculoskeletal disorders; – Strain injuries, low back pain
• Ergonomic factors – Strain injuries, mental stress, lowered productivity and quality of work
• Physical factors e.g., noise, vibration – Noise-induced hearing loss, traumatic vasospastic disease
• Chemical factors – Poisoning, cancers, allergies; – Health effects to various organ systems
• Biological factors – Infections, allergies
• Psychological factors – Psychic stress, work dissatisfaction, burnout, depression
• Psychosocial aspects of work – Conflicts, lowered productivity, lowered quality of work, mental stress