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Screening tool to asses SA workers' health

Academics at the University of Cape Town’s School of Public Health and Family Medicine, in collaboration with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, have developed a useful screening tool that assesses whether workers are healthy enough to return to work.

The COVID-19 Workplace Medical Passport is a special application that uses technology to screen employees’ symptoms and current health status before they make their way to work. The data is then delivered straight to the occupational health and safety manager or the occupational health specialist for review, thanks to the application’s back-end component that generates an employer’s report.

Depending on the information employees provide, results are presented in three colours: red recommends “confirmatory (COVID-19) testing”, while orange encourages additional health monitoring and green means employees are well enough to proceed to work. These indicators are based on the National Employment & Labour Department’s COVID-19 directive on health and safety in the workplace, and the National Health Department’s symptom monitoring and management of staff with COVID-19 guidelines.

The application has been developed by Professor Mohammed Jeebhay, head of occupational medicine at UCT, and Professor Rajen Naidoo, head of occupational and environmental health at UKZN’s School of Nursing and Public Health. Jeebhay and Naidoo are occupational medicine specialists and have been examining the impact of COVID-19 on the public and private sector workforce. Together, the duo develops strategies to mitigate the risks the pandemic poses at various levels.

Jeebhay and Naidoo also serve as technical advisers to the Health Department’s COVID-19 Occupational Health and Safety Workstream, which addresses the myriad issues related to the health of the country’s workforce.

“It is critical that essential workers such as health workers at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic and many other key sectors are timeously identified, screened, tested and diagnosed with COVID-19,” Jeebhay said. “This means that their condition can be managed appropriately so that they can return to work when they are well enough to do so.”

According to Jeebhay, the application is user-friendly, and the questionnaire takes just a minute to complete. The system also allows users to complete more than one questionnaire in a working day should their condition change, and obviates the need for any paperwork. The app produces daily reports on employees’ health and well-being and can be adapted in line with organisations’ individual needs.

While developing the application, Jeebhay explained that UCT and UKZN also partnered with non-profit organisation Mobenzi, a digital platform that helps organisations digitise data collection. Mobenzi provides employers with the back-end support to access employees’ information, contributing to workforce preservation strategies.

“There was great need to develop a simple, easy-to-use tool that would assist with screening and monitoring symptoms daily before employees enter the workplace, as well as provide instant feedback to the organisation’s health professionals managing employees,” Jeebhay said.

As COVID-19 continues to grip the country and the world, Jeebhay said academics, clinicians and epidemiologists in occupational medicine have three priorities: to protect frontline health workers in the field from COVID-19 infection; to better understand the trends among all categories of employees as they move from asymptomatic to having COVID-19 symptoms; and to understand the individual, behavioural and workplace risk factors that increase the risk of mild to severe forms of the disease and other outcomes, including chronic diseases, and develop risk mitigation strategies.

While the application is geared towards health workers in the public and private sectors, Jeebhay said small- and medium-sized enterprises in the private sector have also taken an interest in the tool. The app is free to use for businesses with fewer than 500 employees.

“The COVID-19 Workplace Medical Passport is intuitive and even allows employees to assess themselves while on duty. This safeguards other staff as well as visitors and clients,” he said.

UKZN medical students have already piloted the app, Jeebhay added. Staff and students at Durban University of Technology are next in line to further test its usefulness once campus reopens in a phased approach.

During the pilot phase, Jeebhay said respondents also suggested that the app be translated into isiZulu. This is being looked at.

“UCT’s mission to address societal challenges requires inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration, which the COVID-19 pandemic has made ever so apparent,” he said.

“This collaboration demonstrates that we can combine our expertise, together with our experience in different contexts, to develop a tool that is responsive and can be applied in different contexts in the country.”

 

 

The 29 April ministerial directive on occupational health and safety measures for COVID-19 lockdown level four will soon be amended to provide for the widescale re-opening of South Africa’s economy under lockdown level three, reports Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. According to Employment & Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi, the amendments envisaged at this stage were drafted in consultation with government’s social partners in the National Economic Development & Labour Council but have yet to be finalised.

They appear to be underpinned by measures already featured in the latest disaster management regulations, requiring every reopening workplace to appoint a COVID-19 compliance officer; undertake a risk assessment; and develop a return-to-work plan. Each of these requirements “must” be met before reopening – “in consultation with representative trade unions and health and safety committees”.

This is expected to “ensure” that the “correct number” of employees return to work; “that office space and factory floors are in the desirable state”; and that cleanliness and hygiene continue to be prioritised once workplaces have been deep-cleaned and vehicles disinfected.

Against that backdrop, amendments to the 29 April directive are likely to focus on employer obligations in respect of staff members with co-morbidities or older than 60; quarantining any employee who has been in close contact with a COVID-19-positive colleague; free face masks; and the right to “refuse to work” when there is reason to believe that measures to prevent COVID-19 transmission have not been taken.

It has apparently been agreed that the cost of the necessary “precautions” may not be deducted from employees’ wages; that employers may not require their staff to contribute towards these costs; and that washing face masks at work once they have been removed will not be compulsory.

According to Nxesi, available statistics point to disappointingly low levels of employer compliance with existing workplace COVID-19 infection prevention measures. Contrary to expectations, not every employer recognises that protecting staff from the virus while at work could help to avoid closure.

Against that backdrop, the Minister alluded to concerns that the return of “many more manual workers” to their places of employment could result in a surge of infections unless “all parties are alert” and “redouble efforts” to safeguard their workplaces. In that regard, he singled out “smaller, less resourced employers”.

[link url="http://www.health.uct.ac.za/news/special-covid-19-app-screen-sa%E2%80%99s-workforce"]University of Cape Town material[/link]

 

covid-19.mobenzi.com/designer/#/collect/?formAccessKey=workplace-medical-passport"]Medical Passport[/link]

 

[link url="https://blog.mobenzi.com/2020/05/12/introducing-a-free-covid-19-workplace-screening-tool/"]Medical Passport information[/link]

 

[link url="https://legalbrief.co.za/diary/legalbrief-today/policy-watch/covid-19-crisis-workplace-health-safety-directive-to-be-amended/"]Full report on the Legalbrief Policy Watch site[/link]

 

[link url="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202004/43257gon479.pdf"]Directive[/link]

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