1. Introduction
According to the Health and Safety Executive, a third of all workplace injuries are the result of poor or incorrect manual handling. Therefore, appropriate procedures for manual handling must always be adhered to. For moving and handling people, if tasks are not carried out correctly then the risk of injury is increased significantly to both the person and the handler. The government wants a safe culture that supports healthy working for all.
When undertaking any handling task, it is your responsibility to undertake a risk assessment with considerations to the task, individual, load (object or patient) and working environment (and equipment used for handling loads). This is to help to reduce the risks to people and organisations. These four areas of consideration make up the TILE risk assessment. Specifically, TILE is:
- Task - focusing on the task at hand
- Individual - staying fit and healthy to prevent injury
- Load - safe handling of loads
- Environment - Environmental factors
Legal
MHOR (1992)
The main piece of legislation for manual handling is the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (MHOR). In brief this states the following:
- Avoid unnecessary handling tasks.
- Assess the risk using a TILE assessment.
- Reduce the risk.
- Review the task to ensure the risk was reduced.
- Train for safe practice, inform, organise and supervise.
Listen
