Accident or incident?? Advice anybody please?

[RATTER15]

http://www.theanswerb...w/Question921154.html

[boxtops]

ratter, at my NHS workplace we are instructed that near misses as well as actual accidents need to go in the accident book (which is a sheet the size of a tablecloth) - because H&S can learn from near-accidents as well as from actual. The DH gathers data on falls as well so any information like this is valuable - your perception as to why this is done at your place of work may well be right, but you need to know that the HSE is happy with it. You must have an H&S rep (or is it your manager who designed these forms..?). I too would be concerned because the true state of play is not being recorded, and as was answered before, if a fall or near-miss gave rise to some later discovered injury, I am reasonably sure that the home would have difficulty in explaining why the original incident was not reported. It's not my forté these days but I do work in the NHS, and I used to work in insurance in industry where we dealt with accident claims, the two are not unrelated, and documentation of any incident at the time is happens was always held to be really important.

[Jemisa]

Well Ratter, you've put it in 'Law' and got no responce I don't think you'll get much responce here either. It seems a very dodgy situation, I couldn't come up with an answer and like you feel uncomfortable with the situation.

Sorreee....
Jem

[rowanwitch]

The way the NHS report incidents is to do with risk mangement and its link to I think something initials CPNST or similar, basically good reporting of both accidents and near misses reduces the amount of money a trust has to pay for insurance this can be huge sums for a large trust. It also feeds into the star rating system. The rule to follow is Anything that produces injury to a third party or where there is a possibility of later effects like a slip where you don't think you've been hurt at the time but could get pain and stiffness a few hours later is an accident anything where there is likely to be harm to person or property is a 'near miss, Because of the confusion many trusts are now adopting a single electronic system which does not classify the incident until outcomes have been assessed.
Reporting a near miss when harm is later shown as occurring is still adequate for HSE purposes apparently as I asked this when the system was introduced in my workplace