WHILE caring for patients is always the top priority for those working at Monklands Hospital, looking after the health and well-being of staff is also fast moving up the agenda.

The hospital had achieved a Silver Award under the former Scotland’s Health at Work scheme, so managers were quick to realise the additional benefits they could reap by transferring to the Healthy Working Lives Award Programme.

With the help of her Healthy Working Lives adviser David Wharrie, hospital administration manager Christine McNeill and her team are now working on a range of initiatives to improve the health of staff.

So far, Christine says that with David’s help, the transition from SHAW to Healthy Working Lives has been very straightforward. “We were the first group in Lanarkshire to transfer from a SHAW Silver Award to Healthy Working Lives Silver Award,” she says and they are already aspiring to achieve the Gold standard. “It was all a bit of a learning curve, but David made us really think about what was in our portfolio. It’s been excellent and David is such a good support.”

The programme is now being run across NHS Lanarkshire, but each site has its own Healthy Working Lives co-ordinator and there is flexibility to respond to the needs of staff.

The biggest difference Christine has noticed is that the new Award Programme is more holistic because it encompasses health and safety issues as well as health promotion.

“It’s brought in quite a lot of health and safety aspects and we have to fill in a checklist of things to show that we meet the minimum health and safety requirements,” she says. “The NHS is quite easy for the health and safety stuff, as we are quite robust, so most of that was a done deal, but it’s also about doing more than just meeting your legal obligations, such as, making sure that there is training in place for managers. It’s not just about having policies in place.”

One of the most significant changes for those working at Monklands has been the decision by NHS Lanarkshire to review its approach to smoking on hospital sites.

“We have recently updated our smoking policy so that smoking is not allowed on NHS premises,” explains Christine.

Staff who want to quit smoking are supported with visits from smoking cessation nurses, and looking ahead to the Gold Award, Christine says the hospital is also planning to provide lifestyle checks for staff.

“It is something we are working towards – the checks would be on things like weight, blood pressure and cholesterol to see if they had an undiagnosed condition. We think it would be more convenient for staff to have the checks at work.”

Meanwhile, all the hospital’s 2000 staff are welcome to attend health promotion events, though Christine acknowledges that patients’ needs do have to come first.

“We try to focus on encouraging staff to come along to events. If a ward is particularly busy, then staff may not be able to come because patients are our first priority. We have done quite a few new things this year including a men’s health event and those who did attend took a lot out of it.”

Christine has been pleased to find that the Award Programme is being supported by the medical experts on site, as doctors are keen to get involved with future health promotion events.

“I have just been speaking to the head and neck surgeon because we are doing something for Mouth Cancer Awareness Week,” says Christine. “We just thought this was something we had never done before and the surgeon was keen to get involved, which is an added bonus.”

She adds that the hospital is keen to involve local people in its health promotion events. “There is a community aspect as well and as part of World Heart Day we are enlisting some of the local primary schools to have an art competition.”

Christine believes that the Award Programme motivates employers to keep improving the health and well-being of staff, and intends to keep up the momentum. “What would be the point in putting in all the work for the award and just stopping?” she says.