What it covers

Why backs get hurt at work, and how ordinary lifts add up over years. What the practice has to do about a delivery, a box of notes or a treatment couch, and what the law asks of you. How to look at a load before you touch it, what the guideline weights do and do not mean, how to move something with a second person or a trolley, and what to do after a strain.

Who it is for

Everyone who works in the practice: reception and administration, practice managers, cleaners, healthcare assistants, nurses, pharmacists, GPs and trainees, paid or unpaid.

By the end you will be able to

Name the moving and handling risk factors that turn up in a practice.
Describe what the employer must do and what you must do under health and safety law.
State the principles of safer moving and handling for loads and objects.
Explain how fitting the task to the person protects musculoskeletal health.
Run a quick risk check before moving a delivery, a box or furniture.
Choose controls and equipment that cut the risk, and report what is not working.

Modules

Why backs get hurt
Look before you lift
The building and the kit
When something goes wrong

This is the knowledge part of moving and handling: Level 2 covers moving patients, and your practice's own risk assessments and equipment checks apply over anything written here.

Content mapped to the learning outcomes of the Core Skills Training Framework (England) v1.1: Moving and Handling, Level 1. Law named: Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992, regulation 4.

Sources

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GPAtlas is not accredited, verified or endorsed by Skills for Health or NHS England. Acceptance of this training is at the discretion of your employer, who remains responsible for confirming it meets local requirements. Your employer may require more frequent refreshers than the guidance period; the practice's own policy applies. Some pictures and films in our courses, and the film narration, are made with AI tools. We check every one for accuracy before we publish it.