Manual Handling Injury in Irish Healthcare: The Evidence for Proper Transfer Equipment

Moving people is the most injury-prone task in Irish health and social care, and the legal duty on management is explicit: under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and Chapter 4 of Part 2 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007, hazardous manual handling must be avoided so far as reasonably practicable, and what cannot be avoided must be risk assessed and reduced.

The scale of the problem

The Health and Safety Authority consistently identifies manual handling as the leading cause of non-fatal workplace injury in Ireland — accounting for 29% of the 9,335 accidents reported to the Authority in 2019, and remaining the largest single category in the years since. Within healthcare, the HSE's own guidance identifies people-handling transfers — bed to chair, chair to bed, floor to bed — among the highest-risk activities, and its National Manual Handling and People Handling Policy, effective from 3 June 2025, makes risk assessment and equipment provision central to compliance. Peer-reviewed work points the same way: a 2025 study of emergency medical personnel reported that ground-to-stretcher lifts carried the highest musculoskeletal risk, with 43% of EMTs reporting back pain, and that lower back injuries account for over three quarters of manual handling injuries among healthcare providers.

What the evidence means for equipment choice

The engineering answer to a load that exceeds one person's capacity is to distribute it. That is the design logic of the transfer sling and slide sheet range we supply: multiple handled lifting points sharing the load across a team, placeable in confined spaces without rolling the person — directly addressing the highest-risk transfers the research identifies. For heavier residents and patients, the bariatric equipment range exists precisely because standard equipment and standard staffing assumptions fail at higher weights; planning for this in advance is a risk assessment finding waiting to be written. Evacuation adds a further layer: the evacuation sheet and mattress range moves non-ambulant people without lifting at all.

Equipment without training is half an answer

The 2007 Regulations require instruction and training, not just provision. Through Phoenix STS we deliver the People Moving and Handling course and the Manual Handling course, so the equipment recommended and the competence to use it come from one accountable source.

References

Health and Safety Authority — Manual Handling in Health and Social Care · HSE — Manual handling and people handling in healthcare · HSE National Manual Handling and People Handling Policy 2025 · Injury profiles and safety handling among EMTs (2025), PMC

Reviewed by the Phoenix STS technical team — fire engineers and health and safety consultants, led by Paddy McDonnell BEng CMIOSH. Advice before any sale is our standing policy, and it is free: talk to the team.