THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. THURSDAY JULY 21, 1949. industrial Accidents

Northern Advocate, 21 July 1949, Page 4

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. THURSDAY JULY 21, 1949. industrial Accidents

The latest complete survey by the Department of Labour relating to industrial accidents shows that in 1943 17,787 accidents occurred and that in 1914 the number was 15,514, the average number of clays lost (excluding accidents iri mines) being 75 in 1943 and 89 in 1944.

Compensation paid in respect of Injuries during 1948 amounted to £277,895, and in 1944 to £206,524. The Otago Daily Times states that with the appointment to the Dunedin area of an industrial medical officer. Dr A. Bell, a movement is already afoot to create an organisation which will enable workers in industry to be rehabilitated in the case of injury or illness, and will reduce the huge loss in man-hours, wages and production suffered from these causes.

In Dunedin steps are being taken to achieve an integrated approach to methods of prevention of accidents in industry and the rehabilitation of the victims.

The first factor, if is admitted, is relatively a simple technological one. in which the industrial division of the Department of Health, in association with employers and employees, can function.

These arguments were adduced by the chairman of the Otago Hospital Board, Dr Bell and Dr Harold Palmer, psychiatrist to the Dunedin Hospital Board in an interview with

the Daily Times. The time-honoured procedure in industry, Dr Bell explained, was that when a worker was injured he or she went off work for a certain period. This meant a temporary total loss of the worker’s productive capacity, a serious loss to the worker in

wages, ancl sometimes it involved a loss in. the worker’s morale, resulting in serious and stubborn psychological disorders.

fn England, Dr Bell said, Iho modern approach to the injured worker was io encourage him to undertake suitable work when the nature of his injury made if impossible for him to carry on his usual tasks; the change of work migid be temporary, or it might have to be permanent, but in

either ease the worker’s self-reliance and his earning capacity were tireserved and he remained a useful and productive member of society. In support of this Dr Bell used a homely illustration, saying "when a housewife cuts her finger she carries on with her job . , . and an essential in my work as an industrial medical officer is to enable every worker to do' so or to tit himself into oilier suitable work.” Dr Bell gave some indication ul. lire savings in manpower and in men

that can be made by approved methods in the United Kingdom, where the majority of workers in wellorganised establishments are not for

a day out of useful employment

through accident. At the other end of the scale is the worker who. incapacitated and regarded as temporarily unemployable. becomes the helpless victim of neurosis.

It is clear, as the Daily Times said when commenting upon the local movement to give effect to Dr Bell’s scheme, that the desiderata of keeping this man in productive work,

and of enabling him to retain his self-respect as a useful citizen, are interdependent; to achieve these desiderata it is obvious that there must bji a close liaison among medical practitioners, medical specialists and the industrial medical officer, with, of course, the cooperation of employers and workers.

Apparently these requirements are being met in Dunedin, the example of which might well be heeded on a wide scale.