What is Occupational Health (OH)?
Occupational Health (OH) is a specialist branch of healthcare concerned with the effects of work upon health and health upon work. OH can be consider with issues such as fitness for work, sickness absence, disability, rehabilitation, ill health retirement and travel health for example.
Many employers require independent OH advice where they have concerns about health issues in the workplace and are aimed in supporting you and the business make informed decisions about how health and work are managed and protected.
The Occupational Health advice is evidence based and adheres to legislation.
The benefit to you in attending an OH assessment is it gives you an opportunity to discuss any medical conditions, medication, work and health concerns with a registered health professional who has a specialist qualification in Occupational Health.
The responsibility for the diagnosis and treatment of your ill health remains with your GP and/or Specialists.
Referral to Occupational Health
Someone connected with your workplace, usually Human Resources (HR) or line manager, will have completed our OH referral form. The form content and need to refer to Occupational Health should have been discussed with you and you have provided consent to this.
Preparation for your Assessment
There may be many reasons for wishing to obtain OH advice in relation to an employee. The reason for referral will have been explained to you by your line manager or HR.
Your assessment could either be at your workplace or an alternative nearby neutral venue. More common, is that the assessment is conducted over the telephone or video (remote).
If it is a remote assessment you must be somewhere suitable to take a private and confidential call. We cannot conduct the assessments if you are driving. The assessment is at risk of not going ahead and the employer being charged if the clinician is not secure in knowing that it is not occurring somewhere private, confidential and you are not driving.
Please remind yourself of your history of ill health and treatments as this will be discussed during your assessment.
Please have the following available with you at the assessment –
- Your appointment letter.
- Any medication or a list of medication that you have been taking.
- Spectacles and/or contact lenses, if worn.
- Copies of relevant letters from hospital specialists if available.
- Any information that you think may be relevant to your assessment.
Please arrive with plenty of time for a face to face consultation. If you are more than 10 minutes late it will not be possible to see you. Your appointment will normally last 25 minutes however, depending on the reason for attendance it could last up to 90 minutes.
If you have a telephone appointment, please be ready to take the call from the OH Clinician, ensure you are in a suitable private location, not driving and have any relative notes to hand.
It is important you are ready to receive the call on the contact number confirmed during your booking.
The clinician may make at least 3 attempts to call you if your appointment is remote, this may be made from a withheld or free phone number. If you are more than 10 minutes late your appointment will not go ahead.
If you are more than 10 minutes late and the appointment does not go ahead, it is for the employer to decide if they wish to organise a new OH appointment booking.
Your Appointment Health Assessment
The assessment is conducted by telephone, video or face-to-face with a registered nurse or doctor with specialist experience, training and qualifications in Occupational Health, please be aware that telephone calls will be recorded, however this will be highlighted at the start of the call.
As part of the introduction, the clinician will go through the management referral form with you, explain their role and professional title.
The clinician will ask you questions in relation to your work, health, functional abilities, medical treatment and lifestyle.
After they have gathered this information the clinician will give you an outline of the report content and give you an opportunity to ask questions and seek clarification.
Confidentiality & Reports
During the OH assessment, the clinician will be making notes (clinical case notes/records). These are kept in a secure location by Valentine OH for 6-7 years. If you wish to view our policy, feel free to view our Privacy Statement.
A management report will provide advice to your employer. It will answer the specific questions asked in the referral form. The content of this report will be outlined to you during the consultation.
We do not release the report to anyone unless you give consent to do so. You will be asked to consent (verbally) to the release of the report to the people named in the referral form.
You are able to request view of the report prior to release of the referring person(s). You can request a copy or even decline a copy of the report however the clinician will discuss this further with you during your consultation.
You can withhold consent for the release of the report at any stage. If this is the case the clinician will discuss your concerns with you to try and resolve the situation; for instance, re-wording. The referring person(s) will be informed if consent is withheld. The employer may then continue to make decisions without having the Occupational Health professional opinion which could be detrimental to you.
Cancellations
We will need to notify your employer of any cancellation or non-attendance. Please be aware should you be unable to attend an appointment and cancellation is not received within three working days of an appointment then this would result in a full charge being applied to your employer.
