If you have a question about your individual circumstances, call our helpline on We cannot respond to questions sent through this form. Breadcrumbs Home Advice Health and wellbeing. Occupational health is a type of medical service for: supporting employees and employers helping wellbeing in the workplace It can be used for both physical and mental health. When occupational health can be used When an employee is off sick for a long time or is returning from sickness absence, their employer might want to get occupational health advice.
This can help the employer understand what their employee needs to: feel better return to work do their job address any problems that could cause further health or absence issues Example An employee has had a back injury. Their employer asks an occupational health adviser to carry out an assessment. The assessment says that the employee needs their work chair adjusted.
For example, you may come to the conclusion that it is very good for you to work, but if you reduce the volume of your tasks, you may be more productive. It is understandable that many employees are reluctant to go to an occupational health assessment. The fear of losing their job is so great for some employees that their health problems and general wellbeing seem to lose importance.
But the truth is that the chances of losing your job after this medical consultation are quite small unless we are talking about cases of very serious, unrecoverable physical illness. In most cases, the outcome of occupational health assessments is changes in the schedule, less workload, better working conditions.
The occupational health professional only comes with some recommendations, but only a manager can make a decision about what needs to be done next. In each of the three cases, the manager will talk to you and will have to explain his decision to you.
You must understand that he is not obliged to follow the advice of the occupational health professional, but only the law. Therefore, if you are dissatisfied with the outcomes of your occupational health assessment, you should know that you can always ask for legal help. These are questions from the patient health questionnaire PHQ 9 , which is a commonly used screening tool used for the screening of depression, and it is therefore full of questions occupational health might ask for depression.
Occupational health questions for depression may also involve questions regarding your mood in the last 2 weeks, your daily functioning at home as well as at work and other details of your thoughts and feelings. Contrary to what many people think and are afraid of, occupational health does not have the power to fire employees or to even suggest that they be fired, and that power rests solely with the employer. In fact, occupational health does not have any power to compel the employer to do anything at all, and it can merely report to them about the prescribed or possible course of action, which means that it cannot tell the employer to do anything with an employee no matter what they learn in the interview.
Furthermore, occupational health also does not have the power to unilaterally deem the employee unfit in any way unless there is substantial proof, and it does not have the power to compel the employee to see them. While these are the most basic rights an employee has regarding occupational health reports, another important employee right is that they can demand to see the occupational health report as early as 21 days after it being written and up to 6 months after the publication of the report.
As mentioned in the above points, an important occupational health report employee right is that they can ask for inaccurate information to be changed, and an extension of this employee right is that if the doctor does not agree to amend the report as the individual requests, the individual can ask for a written statement to be added to the report stating their view of the report. Occupational health telephone assessment questions may vary from situation to situation and across conditions, and one might find that different conditions might warrant different questions, which means that in most cases occupational health questions in any variant of Occupational health interview will almost certainly depend upon the condition.
Occupational health telephone assessment questions will also be slightly focused on building rapport, as these interviews usually happen in person and if they happen on the phone it may require additional effort on the part of the Occupational health worker. Occupational health saying someone is Not fit for work implies that the employee either needs to have some time off or they need a change in the work environment in some way, because they may not be in a condition where their physical health is in accordance with their work situations.
Occupational health can also overturn the not fit for work designation when the employee has gotten better and their physical or mental health is no longer problematic, and they can carry out all their responsibilities at work in a normal, healthy and harmless way.
When your work is sending you to occupational health, it does not mean you absolutely have to go, and you might be within your rights to refuse as well. According to the laws related to occupational health, in cases where the employee is meant to follow rules when work sends them to occupational health and this is mandated by the contract, any failure to comply with a reasonable instruction would be a disciplinary matter which may involve a process that ends in dismissal as well.
In order to get the advice you need, you may have to divulge information the employee may not want other parties to know, even if those other parties are bound to medical confidentiality. You should have their consent to do so.
The employee should be told about all aspects of the referral, including information you as a manager may think is confidential. Sharing sensitive information with occupational health can be important for the manager making a referral. Managers need to be aware that the employee has a right to view this information pertaining to their case that they want to share with the occupational health worker and can request copies of communications regarding their referral.
The occupational health clinician must show the referral to the employee should they ask and may share it with them at the beginning of an appointment to ensure the employee understands their reasons for being referred and what advice their employer requires. The law requires them to do so. Information reported back to your manager is factual advice that is given with you informed consent and is focused on achieving the best way forward to manage your health problem at work.
If the referral is initiated by you but following assessment workplace changes are deemed to be necessary to accommodate your health condition, then we would fully discuss how this could be managed with you before talking to anyone else.
Search site. International students Continuing education Executive and professional education Courses in education. Research at Cambridge. Home Services Referrals process. They are always clear, comprehensive, objective and impartial. An occupational health practitioner provides medical opinions and advice to an employer — what they employer does with the advice is entirely at their discretion.
The entire occupational health assessment process is transparent. It is designed to give professional advice to help support both the employer and the employee. There is never any reason to feel threatened by the assessment process and the vast majority of people find the chance to discuss their health and obtain independent advice incredibly helpful. If an employee wishes to gain access to their medical information at any time they can always do so by submitting a Subject Access Request.
There are very limited circumstances under which any data can be withheld from an employee such as the very rare risk that releasing the information may harm their health.
This means is always good practice to discuss the assessment and the questions that the clinician will be asked to answer before the assessment takes place. Occupational Health Assessment Ltd provides rapid access to expert occupational health support for businesses across the United Kingdom. With a unique occupational health assessment service , fitness certifications and access to clinics in Belfast , Birmingham , Bradford , Brighton , Bristol , Cardiff , Coventry , Derby , Edinburgh , Glasgow , Hull , Leeds , Leicester , Liverpool , London , Manchester , Newcastle , Northampton , Nottingham , Plymouth , Portsmouth , Reading , Sheffield , Southampton , Stoke , Surrey and more , the business provides high quality, expert medical advice.
Please contact us for further information or assistance. Skip to content What to expect during an Occupational Health assessment Occupational health is an area of healthcare that specialises in the relationship between health and work, specifically the effects of work on health, and the effects of ill health or disability on capacity to work. Confidential service As in all types of medical practice, occupational health clinicians are bound by medical confidentiality.
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