Establishment and ensuring sustainability of occupational health services

The World Health Organization formulated four Strategic Directions on occupational health -  1) reduction of burden of excess mortality and disability from occupational exposure; 2) reduction of occupational risk factors for health; 3) development of health systems that equitably improve health in occupational settings, 4) development of an enabling policy and institutional environment for occupational health. The ILO Convention161 defines Occupational Health Services (OHS) as "services entrusted with essentially preventive functions and responsible for advising employers and workers in the undertaking on the requirements for establishing and maintaining a safe and healthy work environment to facilitate optimal physical and mental health related to work and adaptation of work to the capabilities of workers in the light of their state of physical and mental health." Basing on the above, this paper looks into the Policy, Premises and Promises held by Malaysia in the attempt to establish her Occupational Health and Safety Services. As the sustenability of work is crucial for the family’s economy; the sustenability of a country’s enterprises is crucial for the sustenability of the country’s economy. Workers are the ones ensuring the sustenability of a country through formal and informal economic sectors. Thus OHS of workers is important and should be the responsibility of both enterprise and the public. The government in order to ensure its integrity should have a clear and strong policy on OHS. ‘Promises’ is ambivalent, where it also connotes an innovative acronym of issues on implementation. Factors to establishment of OHS services are also discussed; as well as the indicators for evaluation. In conclusion, the aims of OHS and the orchestration of the services need to be revisited to concatenate with the universal inspiration as recommended by WHO and ILO.