World Health and Safety Day is an annual event, held by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Since 2003, April 28th has been dedicated to promoting the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases, not only here in the UK, but around the world.

Each year, this day focuses on a theme that falls under health and safety. Some of these themes have included:

To celebrate World Health and Safety Day 2017, we explore this year’s theme, how it affects you and what your workplace can do to ensure you’re honouring employee health, not only on April 28th but all year round.

This Year’s Focus

This year, the ILO has set the theme as: “Optimise the Collection and Use of OSH Data”.

Unsure what this is? Not to worry! We were too at first, but by the end of this post you’ll know exactly what you need to do in order to help improve the safety and health in your workplace.

This data includes the amount of workplace injuries, work-related illnesses and even fatalities at work. You can use this data to put strategies in place to prevent further incidents from occurring, increasing the safety and well-being of your employees.

It’s hard to believe, but approximately 100 people every week will suffer a sudden cardiac arrest at work with SCA accounting for 13% of workplace fatalities in the UK. To combat this, an accessible defibrillator on site can help to increase chances of survival; no one is immune to SCA and as the only definitive treatment, an AED is vital for all workplaces to ensure the vital treatment can be delivered quickly and effectively.

Definitive Treatment

When someone suffers a sudden cardiac arrest, it is important that the definitive treatment is delivered as quickly as possible; with chances of survival decreasing by 10% every minute and current ambulance arrival times averaging at 8 minutes, it is imperative that care is delivered as soon as possible. If defibrillation along with CPR is delivered within 3-5 minutes of a victim collapsing, chances of survival can increase from 6% to 74%.

A sudden cardiac arrest victim requires treatment in the form of effective CPR and defibrillation of the heart from a life-saving defibrillator. The CPR should be delivered with the ratio of 30 compressions to 2 rescue breaths in mind.

The electrode pads which are connected to the defibrillator analyse the patient’s heart rate and relay the data back to the defibrillator. If the data contains either Ventricular Tachycardia (V-Tach) or Ventricular Fibrillation (VF), the defibrillator will advise a shock.

Many people are unaware, but the potentially life-saving shock will actually stop the heart, allowing the organ’s natural pacemaker to take over and restart the heart in a regular rhythm. After this, CPR should be continued until the arrival of emergency services.

Relaying Data

Some defibrillator devices have external data storage options available. These include data cards, USB and serial cards. The data collected includes the amount of shocks delivered to the patient and their heart rhythm during the event.

This data can then be passed onto the Resuscitation Council UK who will then analyse the data from the rescue and utilise it for collection purposes.

Are you Health and Safety Ready?

Will you be improving your workplace health and safety with the inclusion on a life-saving defibrillator? As the only way of improving the 13% of lives lost to SCA within a working environment, we hope this post has encouraged you to invest in the lives of your employees by having the definitive treatment available for everyone to use in the event of an emergency.

Maybe, you’re already well ahead and have a defibrillator rescue ready, along with your training qualification in CPR and AED use – if you do, then we want to hear from you! Head on over to our social channels listed below and let us know what inspired you to become a Heart Safe workplace and where your life-saving device is located.