Is covid an industrial disease? • Medical Republic

Recent findings in the UK may set a precedent for healthcare workers contracting the virus at work.

The UK ruling that the deaths of two nurses from Covid were cases of industrial illness puts Covid in the same basket as asbestosis and pneumoconiosis, with potential implications for healthcare systems everywhere.

Welsh senior coroner found in january Two nurses, aged 65 and 63, were most likely contracted by a patient or a colleague while working at a hospital in Cardiff during the first months of the pandemic. .

The survey results are motion The UK Trade Union Council has called for the government to list covid as an industrial or occupational disease for workers in some industries, particularly health care. It is expected that such decisions will “formally recognize the higher risks in certain jobs and signify the need for greater support for affected workers and patients,” the TUC report said. says.

Sherry Asquith, head of health and safety policy at the Trade Union Council and author of the report, said that when the report was drafted, getting covid classified as an industrial disease in certain sectors would He said he hoped workers in those sectors would be able to receive financial assistance. They have to take time off from work due to acute COVID-19. “When we started calling for COVID-19 to be recognized in this way, we had no idea what the scale of the long-term COVID-19 would be,” Asquith said. “So, in hindsight, that’s definitely the main result.”

It was also about gaining recognition and justice for the families of those who died as a result of covid they contracted at work, she says.

The UK Government’s own Workers’ Compensation Advisory Board also November 2022 Report Regarding the occupational impact of covid, specific covid-related conditions should be listed as occupational diseases in healthy, elderly, and home care workers. Includes pulmonary hypertension following covid-related pulmonary embolism, ischemic stroke or myocardial infarction within 28 days of covid infection, and post-intensive care syndrome after ventilatory support for covid.

However, that report found insufficient evidence to recommend post-covid syndrome or long covid because the condition is difficult to measure or diagnose objectively.

In Australia, covid and long-term covid cases related to workplace exposures are generally handled under workers’ compensation schemes, it said. Professor Joelen Riley Manton, a labor law expert at UTS in Sydney. “If they become ill, suffer an illness, or are injured during their employment, they are all entitled to a claim under the scheme,” she says.

The burden is usually on the worker to prove that the disease was acquired during the course of employment.However, at least he is in NSW, in May 2020 fix If workers in certain industries, including healthcare, disability and aged care, contract covid, it is presumed acquired in the course of their work to workers compensation laws. “Employees can basically say that I have COVID-19 and work here from time to time. We will have to,” says Professor Manton. “It makes it easier for them to argue.”

attempt to abolition The early 2022 amendment was unsuccessfully supported by industry, business, property, hospitality and retail trade associations, but opposed by unions, health and education organizations.

However, New South Wales may be unusual both in introducing and retaining its amendments to make workers’ compensation more accessible to workers infected with COVID-19.

Professor Christopher CarstenHe is a respiratory physician and director of the Department of Respiratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

2021, Professor Carsten and colleagues wrote the work in order to American Journal of Industrial Medicine In it, they considered the argument that covid is treated as an occupational disease and noted that essential workers were most likely to be at the highest risk of being exposed to covid. Professor Carsten said, “Historically, workers have not always been actively monitored. I wanted to draw attention to

One reason for hope is that, at least in British Columbia, success rate of worker’s compensation claims related to COVID-19; more than 8,700 claims from health care and social services workers were granted over the course of the pandemic, but fewer than 1,500 were denied, denied, or has been stopped.

It is unclear whether Wales’ coronal ruling that Covid is an industrial disease will have any impact, even in the UK.

Dr Tony Sara, president of Australia’s Federation of Salaried Medical Officials NSW, says it may be difficult to list covid as an occupational disease in Australia. Many medical staff may have found it in the community. Since the airborne spread of SARS-CoV-2 was recognized, Dr. Sara also notes the widespread use of PPE in his workplace, saying it is “no longer a work-related illness.”

Asquith said the trade union council hopes the government will follow expert advice and approve the novel coronavirus as an industrial disease for health and social care workers.

“It’s very unusual for a government to ignore a recommendation, but I suspect they will try to ignore it as best they can because they know thousands of claims will be made as soon as they are approved. .”