Do I need a health and safety poster in my private GP practice?

The rule

If you employ anyone, you must either:

• display the health and safety law poster where your workers can easily read it, or
• give each worker the equivalent health and safety law leaflet.

The requirement comes from the Health and Safety Information for Employees Regulations 1989, and the poster must be the version approved by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). It explains British health and safety law in plain language and lists what workers and employers should do.

The poster is sometimes described as a CQC requirement. It is not. It is a legal duty under health and safety law. The CQC does look at whether you meet health and safety law as part of its assessment of safe premises, so a missing poster could come up at inspection, but the duty itself is not the CQC's.

Who it applies to

Your situation	Poster or leaflet needed?
You employ a receptionist, nurse, practice manager or salaried GP	Yes
You work alone as a sole trader with no staff	No, because there are no employees to inform
You rent a room in another clinic and employ no one	No. The clinic that employs staff has the duty for its own workers.
You work for a clinic or hospital under practising privileges	No. That is the employer's duty.

Your other health and safety duties apply whether or not you employ anyone. See meeting health and safety standards.

Poster or leaflet?

Either meets the law. In a practice with a staff room or back office, the poster is the simplest option because it covers everyone, including new starters. If your team works across several sites, or you have no suitable staff area, giving each worker the leaflet is just as valid. Keep a note of when each person received it.

Put the poster somewhere staff see every day, such as the staff room, the office or next to the kitchen. It does not have to be in a patient area.

Getting the right version

HSE publishes:

• the poster in A2 and A3 sizes, bought from HSE Books
• a Welsh language version and a version for Northern Ireland
• free leaflets to download, including Welsh, easy read and large print versions
• pocket cards.

The current poster includes security features, and HSE explains how to tell a genuine poster from a copy. If you have an old poster from a previous practice, check it is the current version.

You can add details of any employee safety representatives or health and safety contacts to the poster. That is optional, but it is a useful way to show staff who to go to.

Other notices for the staff area

The law poster is not the only notice an employer needs. Most practices keep these together on a staff noticeboard:

• Employers' liability insurance certificate. You must display it where employees can access it, which can be on a noticeboard, your website or a staff intranet, and show it to inspectors on request.
• Fire procedures. What to do on discovering a fire, the assembly point and who the fire marshal is. Your fire risk assessment will guide this.
• First aid arrangements. Where the first aid kit is and who is the appointed person or first aider.
• Needlestick procedure. What to do straight away after a sharps injury, and who to contact for advice on post-exposure treatment.

Patient-facing notices are a separate question. For example, the CQC expects your chaperone policy to be advertised to patients, and in England you must display your CQC rating once you have one.

When you take on your first employee

The poster is one of several things that start the day you become an employer. At the same time you will need to:

• take out employers' liability insurance with at least £5 million of cover
• check the new starter's right to work in the UK before they start
• give them a written statement of their main terms on day one
• register with HMRC as an employer and set up a workplace pension
• review your risk assessment and induction now that someone else is working in the practice.

See employment law when hiring staff.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The same poster applies in England, Scotland and Wales, and HSE also publishes a Welsh language version. Northern Ireland has its own version, reflecting its separate legislation and enforcement by HSENI.