Case study1: The Country Hospital

You are the safety advisor in a small country hospital, and you report directly to the hospital General Manager. The hospital provides services such as primary care services, mental health, and drug treatment, infectious disease clinic, dental clinic, short-term hospitalisation, emergency room services, general and specialty surgical services, we well as a community health centre that provide a range of services including translation and interpreter services. It is a teaching hospital for visiting students of nursing and doctors. It has a small theatre, and a pathology unit.

The hospital is being expanded to meet local demands for residential aged care and palliative care. The additional expansion is required to help manage the day-to-day operations of the hospital. This expansion relates to the cleaning and catering as well as the maintenance and ground and will involve the building or renovations of new premises to meet this demand.

You are researching your responsibilities (question set) as the PCBU (employer) under the relevant WHS legislation, as well as other related legislation called up, and other supportive instruments. In your report, you must provide a response to each question and sub-questions

For this case study, consider your workplace and identify 4-5 potentially hazardous chemicals and locate their SDS and critical information it contains ie:

1. Why how could workers be exposed to the chemical i.e. could they inhale it, swallow it or could it seep through their skin if it was to splash on them (look at the section on exposure routes),
2. What are the consequences if this was to happen (look at the section on health effects)
3. Is the chemical fire or environmental risk and are their emergency instructions in the event of a spill or leak?
4. Who would the PCBU contact for further information on managing the chemical hazard or risk posed by the product?