Health & Safety Report 2015

HEALTH & SAFETY REPORT

2015

page 8

3. Health and Hygiene: Significant Issues and Activities

While the UK offshore oil and gas industry has traditionally been excellent at examining its safety record and the

underlying causes of incidents, health and safety reports have less frequently examined health issues in the same

way. In 2014, there was an increased focus on health-related matters and we are grateful to our medical advisor,

Dr Graham Furnace, for his assistance in this over the year.

3.1 Occupational Health and Hygiene Network

In June 2014, Oil & Gas UK established a new network to bring together occupational health and

hygiene professionals across the industry with the objective of sharing lessons, learnings and good practice.

The opportunity to network in this way has been met with enthusiasm and has generated significant discussion

at the quarterly meetings. An initial output is a proposal to develop an industry standard on offshore medic

competency assurance (see Section 3.2 below).

3.2 Offshore Medic Competency

Offshore medic competency is an area of concern for the Oil & Gas UK Occupational Health and Hygiene Network.

To ensure consistent quality in the delivery of healthcare offshore, the network has proposed the development

of an industry standard for offshore medic competency assurance. Following discussions, OPITO – the Offshore

Petroleum Industry Training Organisation – has agreed to help create this standard for UK Continental Shelf (UKCS)

medics, covering recruitment, ongoing professional education and core clinical responsibilities. This work will

continue during 2015.

3.3 Ebola

Cases of Ebola, a severe viral illness, were confirmed in several countries in West Africa, in particular Guinea,

Liberia and Sierra Leone in 2014, with imported and secondary infections appearing in Europe and North America.

An increasing number of queries about Ebola led Oil & Gas UK to produce a guidance note providing relevant

information to member companies whose workforce travels to and from industry sites in West Africa.

Although the overall risk to the UK and the probability of a case occurring on the UKCS was low, Oil & Gas UK

worked closely with Health Protection Scotland and Public Health England to reinforce their public health messages

and further reduce the risk of a case offshore. As well as publishing guidance for employers and employees on the

Oil & Gas UK website

, a poster was produced for display at heliports as a reminder to personnel that they should

not travel offshore if they had returned from an affected area within the previous 21 days.

Oil & Gas UK’s guidance on Ebola can be found at