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Occupational Health
& Safety Newsletter
PUBLISHED BY THE OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY DEPARTMENT
‫إدارة اﻟﺼﺤﺔ واﻟﺴﻼﻣﺔ اﻟﻤﻬﻨﻴﺔ‬
Occupational Health & Safety Department
FEBRUARY 2014
Fire Warden Training Sessions at Al Wakra
Hospital
A series of four Fire Warden Training sessions
conducted at Al Wakra Hospital (AWH) were
attended by a total of 94 hospital staff during
the period from January until February. Mr. Leo
Dote, Safety Instructor and Acting Head of the
Risk Assessment Section was the main instructor
of the program. He was assisted by Mr. Omar
De Castro in the practical aspect of operating a
Fire Extinguisher Digital Simulator. Mr. Rizwan
Shaikh, AWH Fire Safety Officer, also contributed
to the training by facilitating the selection of the
participants and the venue for the training.
Various topics related to fire safety management
were discussed during the sessions and
participants also attended a smaller workshop
on fire hazard and risk identification. At the end
of the training program, all participants who
completed the training received their certificate of
participation.
Mr. Michael Joseph Frayne, Executive Director
- Operational Implementation General Hospitals
Group, delivered short message encouraging the
participants and stressing the significance of their
participation and how it will impact facility safety
and patient care.
At the end of the program, participants gained
a deeper understanding concerning their role in
providing a fire-safe healthcare environment.
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Occupational Health & Safety Newsletter
FEBRUARY 2014
Survey and Assessment in Compliance with NFPA Standards
The Occupational Health and
Safety Department’s Fire Safety
Section has appointed M/S Koffel
Associate to carry out the fire
safety and life safety assessment
of all HMC hospitals, as per NFPA
and QCD requirements.
Mr. William Koffel, President of Koffel Associate, along
with his team visited The Cuban Hospital, Al Wakrah
Hospital and the Heart Hospital to carry out the initial
survey and assessment as these hospitals were due for
JCI survey. Detailed assessment of these and also all
the other hospitals are planned to be carried out in due
course.
NFPA is known worldwide as a fire
safety organization that provides
standards and guidelines in order to ensure that facilities
and occupants are safe from hazards and risks of fire.
Mr. Koffel, during his visit, was introduced to the top
management team of the hospitals, and was assisted
along with his team by the respective fire safety teams
of the hospitals.
Fire Safety Orientation for Housekeeping Staff at Al Wakra Hospital
A special session in Fire Safety in Hindi language was
conducted for the entire housekeeping workforce at
AWH Auditorium on11 February, 2014. A total of 147
staff participated in the two-hour session.
Mr. Nadeem Hashmi and Mr. Sallah Saif, members of
the AWH Fire Safety team, assisted in facilitating the
sessions. The session was aimed at increasing the
awareness of staff about the fire safety policies of the
hospital as well as to gain knowledge in fire prevention
and safety through the attendees’ native language to
ensure effective communication. The session covered
various topics such as the proper actions to take in
the event of fire emergency (e.g., R.A.C.E and P.A.S.S
procedures) as part of Hamad Medical Corporation’s
(HMC) and AWH’s Fire Safety Management Plan.
Master’s Program in Medical Physics (MMP)
Ms. Samya Mubarak S Al Manea from the Radiation
Safety Section of the Department, HMC has joined
a new Master’s Programme in Medical Physics
(MMP), as announced by joint Abdus Salam
International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)
and Trieste University. This Master’s program is a
two-year advanced training program in the field
of medical physics, co-sponsored by The World
Academy of Sciences (TWAS).
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The program started on1 January, 2014 and will run
until 31 December, 2015 when Ms. Al Manea will
receive her Master’s Degree in Medical Physics upon
the completion of the program. The first year will be
spent in Trieste, Italy, while the second year will be
dedicated to clinical professional training in a medical
physics department of a hospital in the program’s
training network.
Occupational Health & Safety Newsletter
The Master’s Program is designed to provide young,
promising graduates of physics or related fields with
postgraduate theoretical and clinical training so that
candidates may be recognized as clinical medical
physicists in their home countries.
FEBRUARY 2014
The Master’s Programme in Medical Physics, prepared
with the assistance of experts from the International
Atomic Energy Agency, consists of several basic and
advanced courses and practical and clinical training
programs held by experts in these fields.
OHS Continuous Professional Development:
Measuring Safety Literacy Level and Its Effects on the Corporations’ Safety
Culture- Practical-Based Approach
Continuous Professional
Development (CPD)
is a regular program
of the Occupational
Health and Safety (OHS)
Department which aims
to enhance each staff’s
knowledge in health and
safety. It is conducted
every other Sunday
and covers various
topics delivered by each
assigned presenter.
Mr. Kingsley Izuka
Environmental Safety Officer
Mr. Kingsley Izuka, Environmental Safety Officer
delivered a CPD session on measuring safety literacy
level. According to his presentation, many research
studies have pinpointed the relationship between safety
literacy and safety culture to be directly proportional.
Safety literacy is far beyond knowing how to read,
write and make basic computations. Safety literacy is
one’s ability to identify hazards, its exposure effects
and the risk of being exposed to hazards, and to control
measures against such hazards for maintaining safety.
An organizations may rate high in literacy level yet
score very low in safety culture due to not paying good
attention to its safety literacy. Prevalence of incidents in
an organization has also been tied to the overall safety
literacy level of the organization.
Providing an effective safety education is indispensable
in improving an organization’s safety culture, which goes
a long way to induce total safety within the organization.
Yet, the OHS Department still needs to properly address
some safety education questions including how to
properly assess the effectiveness of safety educational
programs, requirements for safety education providers
and potential opportunities to improve OHS safety
education.
The fundamentals of effective safety education
require that the educator rates high in safety literacy.
Moreover, safety lectures should be administered based
on the participants’ literacy level. Meanwhile, recent
observations have revealed the need for adjustments
in the way safety education is being delivered to HMC
staff if a high level of safety culture is to be attained in
the organization. There is a need for total segmentation
of participants according to their literacy level as well as
their occupations in safety education. The adoption of
this method would enhance to opportunity for HMC to
reach the expected level of safety culture.
Occupational Health and Safety Orientation
for PHCC Staff
OHS Department instructors conducted an Occupational
Health and Safety Orientation for Primary Health Care
Corporation (PHCC) staff as part of their corporate
orientation. Arabic and English sessions were conducted
simultaneously on two different dates by Mr. Ahmed
Nasser Al Keldi who delivered the fire prevention and
safety awareness in Arabic. Mr. Osama Mahamed talked
about environmental safety in Arabic and Mr. Leo Dote
gave the lectures in English about health and safety, fire
prevention and safety, hazardous materials and waste
management plan.
The main objective of the orientation is for the staff to
become aware of the various health and safety issues
that they may encounter in the course of their duties
and the actions they may take in order to mitigate the
risk brought about by any identified hazard and prevent
it from affecting their operations, especially in providing
patient care.
The most recent orientation was part of a series of
corporate orientations that had been provided to
other staff and as part of the Service Level Agreement
between PHCC and HMC.
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Occupational Health & Safety Newsletter
New Fire Safety Certificate Issuance System
As part of improving the OHS Department system
of managing the mandatory training in Fire Safety
Re-Orientation, the Department introduced a more
systematic way of issuing certificates. The certificates
will be given 3-4 days after the training is provided,
when participants attend the entire session and passed
the examination given by the lecturer.
The new certificate is the same as the old one with just
an addition of the National Fire Protection Association
(NFPA) logo and will bear unique control numbers. Each
certificate will have a unique facility control number and
the OHS Department control number for easy tracking
of the details of participants. In case participants failed
the examination, they can re-take the examination for
the second and third time, he or she fails a third time, he
or she needs to attend another mandatory class before
re-taking the exam.
The Department is also planning an on-line examination,
through which the certificate can be immediately printed
after passing. For any queries about certificate issuance,
you can contact Mr. Omar De Castro @ 44395023.
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FEBRUARY 2014
Awareness Training for BS OSHAS 18001:2007
Internal Auditors
Selected OHS staff participated in the BS OSHAS
18001:2007 awareness training which was conducted
last 18-19 February, 2014 at the Hotel and Club of
Hamad Bin Khalifa Medical City. The subject prepared
the staff on the Health and Safety Management
System which will be part of the Fire Safety Section’s
development program.
Mr. Abhijit Kulkarni, Consultant from DQL, facilitated the
training program attended by twelve selected OHS staff.
The attendees are expected to carry out an actual Health
and Safety Internal Auditing in Fire Safety as part of the
program and their roles and responsibilities.
Contact Details
Occupational Health and Safety Department,
Hamad Medical Corporation
Level 13, Barwa Tower 3
Suhaim bin Hamad Street (C Ring Road), Al-Sadd
Doha - Qatar
E: [email protected]
Tel: 44395025

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