More occupational diseases
In spite of the massive effort on improving the work health and safety situation the Danish National Board of Industrial Injuries received about 57,000 cases in 2012. That is almost 2,900 more cases than in 2011.
In 2012, the compensation expenses amounted to almost 4 billion DKK. It is a huge expense for society. At the same time the injuries has vast human costs for the individual person.
An occupational injury covers two different concepts. Occupational accidents and occupational diseases.
The increase in the number of cases is mainly due to more cases on occupational diseases.
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Occupational injuries |
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An occupational injury covers two different concepts. Occupational accidents and occupational diseases.
Occupational diseases: An occupational disease is a disease caused by work or work conditions. Diseases can arise after a short or long period of exposure. |
Occupational injuries in the healthcare sector
The Board of Industrial Injuries divides the cases into industry groups.
The industry group “Healthcare and social services” is the industry group in 2012 with most cases. It is cases concerning healthcare professionals in age care, in institutions and in the hospital sector.
In the industry group “Healthcare and social services” there is a significant overweight of accidents within the category “sprains”. I 2012 58% of the cases was in this category.
The number of reported occupational diseases related to the musculoskeletal system made up 33% of the cases in 2012. This means diseases in shoulder, neck, arms, back and other parts of the musculoskeletal system.
Statistics from the National Board of Injuries shows that many of the reported occupational diseases related to the musculoskeletal systems are not accepted. In comparison, most skin diseases are accepted.
”Healthcare and social services” is the industry group, which employs most people in Denmark. This partly explains why there are so many cases of injuries in the industry group. However, it also shows that there is potential for bringing down the number of occupational injuries in this industry group.
The large number of injuries in the category “sprains” and the large number of occupational diseases related to the musculoskeletal system indicates that there are still too many musculoskeletal injuries in the healthcare work. At the same time, it is apparently difficult for people to get musculoskeletal occupational injuries accepted. As a result, the injuries that happen have a large impact on the person.
" Vendlet wants to keep focus on the physical aspects of work health and safety especially related to the care of the bedridden."
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