NHS staff who injure their backs in the course of their work cost taxpayers over £400 million a year, according to a new publication by the national charity BackCare. Each year, over 80,000 nurses injure their backs at work and 3,600 health care workers are forced to retire early.
Across the care sector handling injuries account for over a quarter of all reported injuries to employees. In a bid to prevent this type of musculoskeletal disorder in NHS employees who undertake heavy lifting tasks, BackCare has produced a new edition of its text book “The Handling of People.” BackCare’s Acting CEO, Sean McDougall, said: “Cutbacks in NHS and local authority spending are intended to reduce waste and increase efficiency, yet the biggest single cause of workrelated sickness absence in the health and social care sectors is largely preventable through better training and systems of management.”
