The missing link

The silage season is almost over. The bales are, hopefully, stored away safely. And, the silage pits are full. Watching agricultural contractors filling the pits is a site to behold, if it were not for the absolute danger that some of them put themselves in when compacting silage into pits to heights never envisioned when they were constructed. The amount of quality silage per acre and the number of cuts has increased beyond the capacity of many farm silage pits today. Yet contractors are expected to put their lives at risk if they want the job. One thing I can guarantee, if a Health and Safety Authority (HSA) inspector happened to arrive on site and saw a contractor teetering on top of a pit that is clearly not constructed for the capacity being compacted into it, you could expect serious action to be taken.

The sad thing is that it will it probably take a fatality before action will be taken to stop what I can only describe as a life-threatening practice. For me the best interests of agricultural contractors are paramount, and I will be pursuing this issue.

Success

The HSA is responsible for promoting safety in the agriculture, which has the highest fatality rate of all sectors in the Irish workplace. In the July issue of Irish Farmers Monthly, I wrote about the difficulties of designing safety policies and guidelines for agriculture when access to important statistics is limited. Certainly, fatalities in agriculture are known because they require an HSA investigation, but serious injuries go unrecorded, unless the HSA is informed.
The only data the HSA and Farm Safety Partnership (FSP) had to work with is that gained from the National Farm Survey that Teagasc carries out each year. Between 1,000 and 1,200 farms are sent a questionnaire on a range of issues including farm accidents. Participation is voluntary but participants are not obliged to give information regarding any farm accidents requiring hospital treatment or admission.

Report

Over many years, I have been a pain in the neck at FSP advisory committee meetings, asking why we cannot get information from hospitals relating to serious farm accidents presenting to emergency departments or for admission. I was told this was not possible due to data protection, even though it was not necessary to reveal patient names. My plea was for them to find a way, change the law, put pressure on whoever, because this information is the missing link when farm safety policies are being drafted.
Well, I am delighted to say my persistence has paid off. The Hospital In-Patient Enquiry body through the national health information system, has prepared a report giving in-depth information about all agriculture-related accidents treated in hospitals. Why it has taken so long is for another day, particularly as that group was established in 1971. The report will be studied by the HSA as a matter of urgency and used to inform and formulate future safety policies. It should also be compared with the Teagasc National Farm Survey to identify any shortcomings.