Guide - Occupational health and safety risks in the healthcare sector

Guide to prevention and good practice

About 10 % of workers in the European Union belong to the health and welfare sector, and many of them work in hospitals.

These workers may be exposed to a very wide variety of risks. EU legislation on health and safety at work currently covers most of these risks - nevertheless, the combination of such diverse risks arising at the same time and the fact that this is clearly a high-risk sector have given rise to a debate on the need for a specific approach in order to improve the protection of the health and safety of hospital personnel at Union level.

All the considerations and any measures designed to improve the health and safety of hospital personnel can be extended to workers in the health sector in general.

European Commission
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Unit B.3
Manuscript completed in December 2010
Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2011
ISBN 978-92-79-19454-2
© European Union, 2011
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
Printed in Luxembourg