FEATURE


PHYSIOTHERAPY: SAFEGUARDING AGAINST MSDS IN OFFICES


Mark Fletcher, Clinical Director of Physio Med, discusses the impact Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) can have on a business, how FMs can safeguard their employees and help them recover when workplace injuries do occur.


The health and wellbeing of employees is often at the top of employers’ priority list, as sickness absence poses a major problem in the workplace. More than 130 million working days are being lost to sickness absences every year in the UK, with almost one million employees taking at least four weeks off per year due to sickness.


As back pain is currently the largest reported reason for sickness absence in the UK, musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), and how they


24 | TOMORROW’S FM


are tackled, are a big issue for employers. Recent research among NHS trusts also showed that the length of absence due to MSDs is almost four days longer than the average length of time taken off for other illnesses and injuries.


It is a common misconception that workplace injuries only occur in factories, warehouses or in other physically demanding jobs but in fact almost 30% of reported workplace injuries occur in office-based jobs.


Employers are facing increasing pressures to find a solution that improves absence rates and employee wellbeing. The answer could lie in working to prevent injuries before they happen. Whilst employers have a number of obligations to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their staff, there are also many measures that employees, as individuals, can take to stay fit and injury free.


For employees spending the majority of their time in a static sitting position, it is paramount that


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