The Department of Medicine recognises the safety, health and well-being of our staff, students, contractors and visitors are of paramount importance. Hence, the department is fully committed to meet this responsibility in accordance to NUS Safety and Health Policy.
The Department of Medicine accepts the responsibility for providing a high standard of safe and healthy working environment for all staff and students within the department.
We will take every reasonable effort to ensure that all our staff and students are familiar and comply with all applicable occupational safety and health legislations, regulation and code of practice in their workplaces. We will also regularly monitor and update all our Principal Investigator (PI)s and their respective safety lead(s) of any changes in legislation.
We will provide sufficient information and support to our PIs to identify potential hazards, conduct risk assessments and implement risk control measures before the commencement of any work. It is ultimately the responsibility of the PI to address the issues identified from the risk assessments to his/her laboratory personnel so as to prevent the occurrence or re-occurrence of work injury and illness. We will also bring to the attention of all our staff and students of any increasing incidence of work injury and/or illness identified within our department through email communication and safety talk.
We will implement adequate and/or mandatory safety training for all staff and students to ensure competency in their tasks. It is the responsibility of PIs to provide on-the-job supervision for their staff, students and contractors and identify training needs associated with their work. In addition, risk assessment to identify any potential risks are also required to prevent any possible injury and/or ill health that they may face in their work.
We will undertake to continuously improve our safety performance by establishing, auditing and reviewing occupational health and safety objectives and targets through consultations with our stakeholders during management reviews. We will plan and budget appropriate safety and health programmes and provide hands on workshops each year to all our staff and students. We will also monitor the safety training and medical requirements of all personnel as stipulated by the NUS Office of Safety, Health & Environment (OSHE). Our departmental safety and health management system will always remain relevant and effective. It is our responsibility to regularly monitor, review and update it so that corrective actions of any unsafe work practices and/or work environment are swiftly rectified.
We are committed in establishing and strengthening a positive safety and health culture where safety and health is embedded as a core value in the Department of Medicine, through safety promotional activities, safety training and communication.
Professor Anantharaman Vathsala
Head
Department of Medicine
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
National University of Singapore
14 March 2023