OH&S Issues in a pharmacy

“I should feel safe in my workplace”

Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) is an important issue for pharmacists. Employers and employees have obligations under the Occupational Health & Safety legislation in your State/Territory.

The Pharmacists Division of APESMA is embarking on the “I should feel safe in my workplace” campaign to identify workplace hazards in pharmacy, and to provide support and advice to members on how to deal with hazards.

The steps involved in dealing with occupational health and safety hazards in the workplace are:

Firstly, to identify a hazard (an object or situation that may cause harm to someone).
Secondly, to assess the risk of the hazard. Will the hazard cause minor injury or severe injury?
Thirdly, being aware of how to control the hazard, i.e. what can be done to eliminate or reduce the possibility of the hazard causing injury or illness?

Obvious examples of occupational health and safety hazards in pharmacy could be

The danger of a customer tripping in the doorway of a pharmacy because of uneven or torn carpet.
A staff member injuring their back attempting to lift boxes of stock that are too heavy for an individual to lift

In order to gain a better understanding of existing occupational health and safety practices in the pharmacy workplace, the Association is asking all pharmacy members to complete a short survey.

No identification is necessary and all information gathered will be used exclusively by the Association. The survey questionnaire will typically take around 5 minutes to complete.

Please click here to commence the OH&S in Pharmacy survey . Please ensure Javascript is enabled on your browser.