Assessment of Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Selected Aspects of Occupational Health and Safety Among Out - Sourced Employees Engaged in Cleaning Services at Two Selected Base Hospitals in Sri Lanka

In the Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka, hospital cleaning service has been out - sourced to the private sector suppliers. However, the contract agreements between the two sectors have not included the aspects of “employees' health and safety” in service contracts. Therefore, this study was carried out to assess the knowledge and attitudes towards selected aspects of occupational health and safety among out - sourced employees engaged in cleaning services at two Base Hospitals in Sri Lanka. All the staff in the relevant category recruited to the above two hospitals were enrolled and the data was collected using self - administered questionnaire. Socio demographic aspects of the participants, level of knowledge of participants on the key aspects of health and safety measures related to their job, and the kind of attitude of participants on some selected aspects of health and safety measures related to their job were identified. Results showed that only 60 % were aware of the value of occupational health and safety issues; almost everybody had very positive attitudes towards many selected aspects of health and safety measures and only a few had moderately negative attitudes towards some aspects. As there is much more room for improvement, health and safety practices of the employees should be considered as a priority and measures should be taken by the health authorities to improve the situation