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Health and Safety

Contents

About This Report

HSE Performance

Social Performance

Economic Performance

Looking Ahead

We have established programmes to give our employees the best possible chance of being healthy and ensure that they are not exposed to risk at work. In addition to work-related health surveillance programmes, we recognise that the Company has a role to play in providing health information and supporting health-related campaigns, e.g. no smoking days, testicular and bowel cancer and diabetes awareness campaigns. Other examples drawn from programmes/initiatives across our main business sites include:

Vaccinations offered at no charge to employees
Health Fair/Wellness Days (vision screen, blood pressure, screening body composition analysis) at no charge to employees
Weight watchers programmes
Executive physicals
First Aid CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) training
Employee Assistance programme - service available to all employees including counselling and intervention of family, marital, financial, and other work or personal issues
Health advice and medical kits for travellers
General health awareness information in line with national programmes.

Our concern for the health of our employees is also addressed in our staff restaurants, where we make a special effort to provide healthy eating options. Regular health screening of employees who may be at special risk is standard practice as is the provision of specialist protective equipment where required.

Lost Time Accident Frequency Rate

per 200,000 hours worked

HSEPerformance_HealthandSafety_LostTimeAccidentFrequencyRate

(per 200,000 hours worked)	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Orthopaedic Reconstruction and Trauma	1.30	1.00	0.70	0.42	0.44	0.35
Endoscopy	1.60	0.70	1.70	0.85	0.96	0.31
Advanced Wound Management	1.40	1.10	1.00	0.70	0.42	0.93
Research	0.00	0.20	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.67
Indirect markets					0.40	0.71
Direct Markets					0.50	0.44
Group	1.40	0.90	1.00	0.58	0.50	0.54

The Group's lost time accident performance deteriorated largely as a result of a poor performance in Advanced Wound Management. In particular, the facility at Hull suffered three lost time accidents in the first month of 2007. A very strong performance and an independent HSE Audit at that site was taken as an indication that there was no material change in the quality of the underlying HSE management systems. Rather, it was taken as a reminder that focus on HSE performance is needed constantly and particularly during times of great change. This assessment appears to be vindicated by there being no lost time accidents within Advanced Wound Management in the first quarter of 2008.

The sharp rise in the lost time accident frequency rate within Research was caused by having just one lost time accident amongst a relatively small working population.

Notes

Lost Time Accident Frequency Rate (LTAFR) is based on the number of lost time accidents per 200,000 hours worked, the basis commonly used in the USA. Many LTAFR figures quoted in the UK are based on 100,000 hours worked so these figures above should be halved when making comparisons with companies in the UK.
All parts of the Group are using a common definition of lost time accident which is one in which the injured person is unable to report for work on the day/shift following the accident.

Accident Severity Rate

days lost per 1,000 employees

HSEPerformance_HealthandSafety_AccidentSeverityRate

(days lost per 1,000 employees)	2002	2003 work	2004 days	2004*	2005	2006	2007
Orthopaedic Reconstruction and Trauma	49	95	104	145	28	43	26
Endoscopy	126	27	240	336	187	320	60
Advanced Wound Management	210	197	83	116	75	15	144
Indirect Markets						19	342
Direct Markets						43	31
Research	0	301	0	0	0	0	60
Group	122	129	120	168	72	123	60
*In 2002 and 2003 this was based on workdays lost. In 2004 the measure was changed to calendar days lost to reflect changes in US legislation. A 2004 "work days" column has been included to give a direct comparison with previous years.

The lost time accident severity rate moved in line with the lost time accident performance.

The high figure within Research is a result of a single accident in which an employee slipped, breaking a leg, with an absence of 53 days. The high rate is a reflection of the relatively low number of people employed.

Notes

Accident severity rate is a measure of the seriousness of accidents by the number of days lost through accidents per 1,000 employed.
The Research figure is the result of a single accident with 53 days lost.

OSHA Recordable Incidents

OSHA Recordable Incidents	2005	2006	2007
Endoscopy	1.5	2.1	1
Orthopaedics	1.9	1.4	1.9
Wound Management	2.3	0.6	1.8
Research	0	0	0.7
Group	1.9	1.4	1.7

Previous reports have included the cases of occupational ill health. Inconsistencies in reporting across the Group made this an unreliable measure and it has now been replaced by the OSHA Recordable Incident Rate. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires companies to maintain records of a variety of incidents which result in lost time, require more than First Aid, or require a person’s work to be modified in some way. It is therefore a broader measure than lost time accidents alone and includes cases of occupational ill health. The measure has been adopted across the Group.