Authors (including presenting author) :
Luk MHM1, Wong Mai1, Chan PF1
Affiliation :
1: Occupational Medicine Care Service, Kowloon East Cluster
Keyword 1: :
Occupational health
Keyword 2: :
Healthcare workers
Keyword 3: :
Prevention strategies
Keyword 4: :
Health surveillance
Keyword 5: :
Radiation workers
Keyword 6: :
Injury prevention
Introduction :
Healthcare workers face unique occupational hazards in their daily work environment. The Occupational Medicine Care Service (OMCS) was established in the Kowloon East Cluster (KEC) at United Christian Hospital (UCH) to provide comprehensive occupational health support to Hospital Authority KEC staff through different preventive strategies and clinical care.
Objectives :
To further enhance the preventive role of KEC OMCS by introducing health surveillance for KEC radiation workers, in addition to continuing clinical care for patients with work-related injuries and diseases, or any health conditions affected their functional capacity to perform their job duty.
Methodology :
KEC OMCS adopts a comprehensive three-tiered prevention framework to safeguard the occupational health and safety of KEC workers.
- Primary prevention prevents work-related diseases and injuries through collaboration with the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Team. Regular meetings were held to review injury-on-duty (IOD) incidents, identify workplace hazards, and develop preventive strategies.
- Secondary prevention emphasises early detection of occupational and work-related diseases. KEC OMCS has provided health surveillance for KEC radiation workers, as a statutory requirement, starting in July 2025. This enables early detection of potential radiation-related diseases and assessment of fitness for radiation work.
- Tertiary prevention provides comprehensive clinical care and rehabilitation for staff with any health conditions including work-related injuries which affected their functional capacity to perform normal job duty. Services include diagnosis, treatment, coordination of rehabilitation programmes, and return-to-work management through a multidisciplinary team approach.
Result & Outcome :
Results: Meetings with the OSH team were carried out every three months to discuss IOD incidents and advise on preventive strategies. Since the initiation of the health surveillance programme for KEC radiation workers, KEC OMCS has provided 22 health surveillance assessments from 1 July 2025 to 16 December 2025. The IOD rate of the KEC from October 2024 to September 2025 was 2.61 (per 100 full-time equivalent workers), which was lower compared to the previous year, which had an IOD rate of 3.34 from October 2023 to September 2024. Conclusion:The OMCS of the Kowloon East Cluster provides a comprehensive approach to safeguard KEC workers’ occupational health through the integration of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention strategies.
