Rapid access to expert occupational health assessments

If you need professional medical advice about whether an employee has a medical condition or not, or guidance about how to support a condition, or even advice about how a health condition may progress or develop in the future, that’s where occupational health can help. An occupational health service can be so much more than just managing sickness absence for an employee with a health issue.

Because occupational health is the 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, you can get professional advice to help make sure you don’t make mistakes when managing health at work.

Our service is designed to support those employees who may be unfortunate enough to be ill, to assess their “fitness to work”, or how effectively a they can perform all the duties that their job involves. We can advise on whether any reasonable adjustments to their role or working environment will help them to cope both mentally and physically with their current job.

Our assessments conduct an in-depth investigation of the employee’s health, which is provided to you as a full medical report. The content of the report provided following an assessment is also often directly linked with the questions asked at the start of the assessment process, which is why we provide guidance and support on the best questions to ask for referring managers.

All our reports ensure you receive professional medical advice about whether the employee has a medical condition, suggestions about how to support the employee and advice about how things may progress (if that’s what you’ve asked us to comment upon).

It’s important to say that we can’t take management decisions for you and our advice is limited to professional medical opinions – what you do with our advice is at your sole discretion.

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. To support those employees who may be unfortunate enough to be ill, an occupational health assessment can assess their “fitness to work”.

An occupational health assessment assesses how effectively a person can perform all the duties that their job involves and whether any reasonable adjustments to their role or working environment will help them to cope both mentally and physically with their current job. As well as being incredibly useful to help manage the health and wellbeing of your staff, it can also help you manage your Health & Safety risks and obligations too.

There’s more in our What to Expect from Occupational Health Guide.

Early intervention and specialist medical help offer the best prospect of a successful conclusion to a health problem at work. Most absent employees should be able to return to previous duties, however, some may require adjustments to their role or environment if they are to continue working successfully.

If you’re concerned about an employee’s ability to do their job, or their mental health, it’s best to seek professional medical advice at the earliest opportunity.

If there is an underlying medical condition or longer-term disability, this does not necessarily mean that the employee will be unfit for work. Sometime adjustments at work are suggested (e.g. working reduced hours for a limited period) that may be necessary to demonstrate you are doing all you can to support your employee appropriately. Our business helps you to meet your legal requirements regarding disability and health at work.

Where necessary, we can also help identify if the nature of an employees’ work might be having a detrimental effect on their health, in which case advice can be provided to avoid any further deterioration.

Predicting how a health condition may develop, or how much absence from work can be expected, in the future can be incredibly difficult and inexact. If surgery is anticipated it is usually possible to give an estimate of typical or likely absence duration. Health can often be a complicated issue and sometimes it can take time to get a clear answer and a resolution. 

The content of the report provided following an assessment is also often directly linked with the questions asked at the start of the assessment process, which is why we provide guidance and support on the best questions to ask for referring managers.

You’ll receive professional medical advice about whether the employee has a medical condition, suggestions about how to support the employee and advice about how things may progress (if that’s what you’ve asked us to comment upon).

We can’t take management decisions for you and our advice is limited to professional medical opinions – what you do with our advice is at your sole discretion.

We guarantee to offer you an appointment within 3 days of a request, although if you’d like to arrange a specific day or time to suit your employee, it can sometimes take a day or two longer.

To make sure we can conduct a thorough assessment, the consultation between the clinician and your employee can take up to an hour.

In order to give you and your employee the best advice, we need to understand the problem clearly. We will provide you with a management referral form to help you collate the basic information we need to facilitate our assessment.

Sadly, we are unable to assess employees without a referral form being provided first, as we have to be able to demonstrate that we have acted fairly.

In return for a professional fee, we will give you information that will enable you to make decisions about an employee’s health-related problems and also help you comply with legislation.

Although we will always try to be as helpful as possible, we can only answer the questions that you have asked of us in your referral.

We always try to make our reports as detailed and comprehensive as possible and (if asked in the referral) we will provide comment on:

• whether we think an individual is fit for the role outlined to us
• whether an underlying health condition is present or not
• when an employer may expect an employee to return to work
• recommendations regarding adjustments if we think the Equality Act may apply
• suggestions for rehabilitation programmes

We’ll provide our full report and commentary for you within three working days of the assessment, subject to the employee’s consent to release the report.

Employees can ask to see the report before it is sent to you and although they can request that any factual inaccuracies are corrected, they cannot insist that we change our opinions.

There’s more about this in our guide to GP reports.

Yes, you’re very welcome to discuss the history and background to the case before submitting a referral, so we can make sure we get the right clinician to support the case. There’s no extra fee for the support, however, we can’t discuss what happens during the assessment, or what’s likely to in our report, until we’ve completed the consent process with the employee. Please contact us for further information.

We’ll always be pleased to provide whatever context and support we can to help explain our reports, for example, clarifying our advice or medical terminology. To ensure we maintain our independence and impartiality, we can’t provide additional information (that’s not already contained in the report) without fully informed consent from the employee.

Although we ask employees to sign a consent form, we can’t release the report without explicit informed consent, which can be retracted at any time.

Although it rarely happens, employees can refuse consent to release the report. In these rare circumstances, you’re then able to make whatever business decisions you need to take based upon what you do know about the case. Depending upon the terms of the contract of employment you have governing your relationship you may be able to pursue the conduct channel.

ACAS also has some useful information and guidance for employers too.

We have different fees depending upon whether the assessment is conducted by a Nurse or a Doctor. Each referral includes a pre-assessment telephone or video consultation with the referring manager, up to a 1 hour assessment, the compilation and provision of our report and professional opinions and all associated administration, scheduling and service support. 

Please contact us for our current professional fee schedule. We’re pleased to be able provide preferential terms for charitable and educational bodies. Please contact us for details.

We’ll always to our very best to help and will always try to accommodate any late changes, although regrettably, if the appointment is missed or cancelled on the day it’s scheduled, because we will not be able to use the time booked, we will still need to charge the full assessment fee.

Absolutely, yes, we welcome all major credit and debit cards. We can also provide a pro-forma invoice on request too.

Yes, we’re very pleased to provide pro-forma invoices. We also accept all major credit and debit cards too.

As in all types of medical practice, occupational health assessments are bound by medical confidentiality. All medical information given to us by employees is confidential and can only be given to a third party, the employer, when the employee gives informed consent.

Similarly, the records we hold about employees are held securely and in confidence. Confidentiality and trust are essential to successful health management and employees may withhold information from occupational health, which although it might not be directly related to their job, may influence the nature of our advice and thus a rapid return to full function.

The duty imposed on us by the GMC to obtain informed consent means that we must let an employee know the occupational health professional’s opinion with respect to their work capacity or capability. This is often done during the assessment. We are obliged to provide a copy of our report to the employee, before it is released to your business.

The employee can see any information, including the referral form you provide to us, and can also insist upon factual changes to any report before it is sent to your business. Should additional information or clarification be required following receipt of the Occupational Health report, a supplementary report may be written. However, this supplementary report will also need to be sent to the employee prior to releasing to you to ensure transparency for all parties. It’s important to note that an employee cannot change the opinion of the OH practitioner if they do not agree with it.

Supporting an open approach and the need for informed consent, we think you are likely to get the best results by consulting with and involving the employee closely with any referral to occupational health.

For anything other than routine medicals, it is hugely important to advise the employee what issues are being raised before they are sent for an occupational health assessment.

To discuss arranging an occupational health referral, or for any further information, please contact our team.