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Protecting health and safety of health workers
Globally, there are 136 million workers in the health and social work sector, approximately 70% of whom are women. All these workers have the right to decent work, including protection of health and safety risk at work.
Providing occupational health and safety measures for protecting health workers and is also fundamental for well-functioning and resilient health systems, quality of care and maintaining a productive health workforce.
Health workers face a range of occupational risks associated with biological, chemical, physical, ergonomic and psychosocial hazards affecting the safety of both health workers and patients.
WHO’s work on protecting health and safety of health workers includes:
- Development of norms and standards for prevention of occupational risks in the health sector
- Advocacy and networking for strengthening the protection of health and safety of health workers
- Supporting countries to develop and implement occupational health programmes for health workers at the national level and in all healthcare facilities.
