Health & Safety Executives from across the Region gather
More than 80 senior Health and Safety representatives from across the UAE filled the conference room in Dubai's Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates yesterday for the launch of Connaught in the Gulf, organized by Connaught Gulf, the world leader in the field of the internationally recognized and accredited IOSH and NEBOSH Health and Safety training courses.
Health and Safety executives from a cross section of industry representing Abu Dhabi Municipality, the UAE Ministry of Health, Shell Egypt, Wade Adams, ADNOC, Al Naboodah, Dubal, Emirates Airlines, Parsons Brinkerhoff, DP World, among other organizations attended the event.
The evening began with a speech highlighting the growing importance for organizations in the private sector to implement a unified set of health and safety guidelines in the workplace delivered by Dr. Mahmoud M. Fikree MD PhD, The Assistant Under-Secretary for Preventative Medicine & Environmental Health from the UAE Ministry of Health.
Dr. Fikree said, "I am glad Connaught has arrived in the UAE. Their presence in the country will help support the Ministry's ongoing efforts to make the UAE a safer working environment. We at the Ministry of Health are now looking to create a unified database for health and safety guidelines in the UAE so as to be a reference for improving current plans and developing future ones. The Ministry has already begun creating departments of occupational health to oversee and provide consultation and training on all matters related to the workplace."
Dr. Fikree's speech was followed by a presentation by Dr. Ghasan Shaker, Consultant in Occupational Medicine also of the Ministry of Health on health and safety in the workplace and this was later followed by a speech by Dr. Jeoff Lloyd, Head of Consultancy, CHSS Ltd.
In Dr. Lloyd's speech on 'what drives senior management towards good safety performance,' he said the mistaken belief that costs can be saved is the overwhelming cause why health and safety regulations are not being strictly adhered to. Dr. Lloyd highlighted a recent case in Dubai where a Project Director was sentenced to 3 years in jail following the death of nine workers on a construction site. "These tragic deaths could have been so easily avoided and the jail term serves as a start warning to those responsible for instituting health and safety systems." | 
