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Risk assessment as a game is great fun: You should try it sometime…


The drive along the Amalfi coast is best described as a long series of tight hairpin bends with perilous cliff top drops on one side and jaw-dropping scenery; the road is exactly the width of two coaches with a matchbox placed between. And it is busy.

As with other regions in Italy, motorcyclists make up a significant proportion of the traffic; they tear past, without helmets or anything that could vaguely be described as “protective clothing”, passengers clinging on behind or babies at the front, and sometimes with the family dog sitting in the footwell. On occasion all three are on board along with the driver!

And so it was on a recent family trip to Sorrento that our game of ‘risk assessment’ started where we allocated points to motorcyclists on the likelihood of them NOT making it to their destinations. It wasn’t just the scenery that was spectacular as we regularly witnessed hair-raising overtaking on blind bends, bikes racing one another down the high street and scooters loaded up with just about everything you could imagine, including one strong chap who roared past at speed while carrying a full-length ladder! The chap with a ladder scored 8.

Towards the end of our holiday, following an incident where I’d nearly been ‘taken out’ by a scooter whose driver was facing backwards whilst showing his passenger something of interest on his mobile phone, I found myself in reflective mood pondering the Italians attitude to risk. What got me thinking was that being around so many cars sporting dents and scrapes to the bodywork and witnessing so many “near-misses” (whilst nearly becoming a casualty myself), what we did not see was an actual accident; not one.

This thought spurred me into a quick Google search, which to my surprise revealed that the UK traffic-related death rate is not much lower than our Italian neighbours, with 6.2 road fatalities per 100,000 motor vehicles per year vs Italy at 7.6.

That’'s only 1.4 more road fatalities per 100K vehicles per year. Gosh.

Here in the UK our approach to risk could not be more different. We wear crash helmets, protective clothing and seat belts when ‘on the road’; sometimes we even cancel valuable school trips on the basis of perceived risk which IMHO is utterly ludicrous. Even the CEO of The Health and Safety Executive has been on the BBC, advising us Brits to exercise ‘common sense and judgment’ when it comes to assessing what is an acceptable level of risk or not, as in the UK we choose to apply the legislation rigidly, prescriptively, in a very black and white way. It is delusional for anyone to think that risk may be eliminated altogether as there is a level of risk in just sitting in a chair..and also getting out of it.

Health and Safety legislation is there to protect us all. Regardless of business size, it is right that you have a duty of care to protect staff who may be handling dangerous animals, substances hazardous to health and dealing with potentially dangerous clients too; so morally, ethically and to remain within the law, you should have protocols in place to ensure that where ever there is a reasonable chance of harm that the risk of this - at the very least - is minimised.

Remember, you cannot eliminate risk altogether, yet there can be no getting away from the fact that there are a number of potential dangers associated with delivering veterinary services; nor that implementing Health and Safety legislation comes at a cost. Since the majority of veterinary practices are SME’s, this cost has to be funded by a lower turnover than many, larger corporate organisations so many of you choose to contract this out to third parties with the necessary expertise in this area and the time to ensure that things are done properly.

So having returned from our wonderful holiday and mulling our experiences over, what I wonder is this…..

Bearing in mind the stark difference between our own attitudes and those of some of our European neighbours who take what we perceive as relatively excessive risks, are we applying the letter of H&S law so strictly in the UK that it is holding our businesses back? It is clear that the Italians demonstrate a relatively cavalier attitude to safety as they go about their daily lives, yet when you compare the statistics it begs the question as to which population is better at actually assessing risk - us or them? You see, most of the time, in the majority of situations, accidents do not happen!

So my question for you to ask yourself is: Precisely which rules and regs are an impediment to your business when in reality there may be nothing more than an “acceptable” level of risk if you didn't have them at all?

Comments please!
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