Top tips for buying occupational health advice
Sourcing professional occupational health support can sometimes seem complicated. There are many different providers, industry jargon can be mystifying and cost alone is often not the best basis to select a professional partner.
Buying occupational health advice is a bit like buying legal opinions and advice. You’re commissioning a professional opinion about an issue at work and what you may be able to consider doing to support an employee.
Unless you’re an HR professional, chances are you’ll only look for occupational health support once or twice in your professional career. We’ve created these top tips to help you understand the world of occupational health, so you can make an informed decision.
Top 10 tips for buying occupational health support
- Be clear on what you need – are you looking for a ‘one off’ opinion, or an ongoing relationship – do you need “health surveillance” (worker health checks like audiometry, respiratory or skin checks) or help managing a complex absence case?
Some providers will be keen to sign you up to an ongoing package, so it’s worth confirming exactly what services you need before searching the internet.
- Look out for the “SEQOHS” logo (either ‘Accredited’ or ‘Working towards accreditation’) as it’s an indication that the provider has solid foundations and a good understanding of occupational health.
SEQOHS is a set of voluntary quality standards for occupational health run by the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, which involves regular audit of the provider by experienced and independent occupational health professionals.
- Health data is special category data under GDPR, cyber attacks are an ever-present danger, so you should ensure the provider has robust information governance standards in place; Cyber Essentials, Cyber Essentials Plus or ISO Certification are the minimum standards you should accept.
- Experience is absolutely critical in advising employers on how to manage their risks. Look for MFOM/FFOM qualifications amongst doctors or SCPHN for nurses, as it means they specialise in occupational health. You can learn more about occupational health qualifications and what they mean in this article on the topic. The number of years post-qualification experience of the clinician is incredibly important too.
We’re proud to publish professional profiles of our entire team of doctors and nurses, allowing you to assess their experience and specialist qualifications before choosing the best specialist to support your business.
Many occupational health providers do not offer information about their clinical teams on their websites, often because they don’t employ their own clinicians, subcontract work or lack extensive clinical capacity.
If there’s no information about the clinical team on the providers’ website, buyer beware.
- Many providers do not publicly display the amount of time allocated to their appointments. It’s important to confirm exactly how much time is made available for the assessment. This is essential in order to provide a ‘like for like’ fee comparison (see point 6 below too).
Many providers will expect assessments (and the report arising from the appointment) to be completed within 30 or 45 minutes.
If a provider suggests a 30 minute appointment is appropriate, you could ask them to justify how a full bio-psycho-social assessment and a comprehensive report can be provided within the time.
- Cost alone is often a poor measure of quality. There can be wide variations in occupational health fees and some providers emphasise the price of their service, because they prefer to compete on price.
If you can save £100 on an assessment fee, it may be attractive, although if it takes another week to get an appointment arranged, you are likely to lose any saving as you continue to pay an employee whilst waiting for the appointment (Statutory Sick Pay alone is £118.75 a week as at April 6th 2025)
If provider ‘a’ charges £300 for a 30 minute appointment, they are 20% more expensive than another provider charging £500 for a 60 minute appointment.
- Consider confirming turnaround times with the provider and how they will be achieved, including how employee consent if factored into the process. You could ask how quickly the employee will be seen, how quickly the report will be created and how the provider will ensure employee consent is managed.
Fast access matters – if you wait weeks for an appointment, or for a report afterwards, the value of the advice drops.
- You could ask for report examples from a provider, which they should be able to provide quickly. An OH report should be clear, actionable and written in plain English. If its just medical jargon or a copy-and-paste job, it won’t be much help.
You can read more about reports in our guide to occupational health reports.
- Professional occupational health providers will always be responsive and helpful. If you have to wait a day or more for a reply to an email, that’s a warning sign. Good providers will always be pleased to provide supporting resources and guides too, such as guides for managers and employees.
- You should always consider asking for references, case studies or testimonials too. If a provider has testimonials on their website, a quick Google will help identify if they’re from real people or not.
The Society of Occupational Medicine has a really useful guide to buying wellbeing services, as does the Health & Safety Executive (focussed on health surveillance) and the Faculty of Occupational Medicine has also published a guide to commissioning advice from an occupational health doctor.
About Occupational Health Assessment Ltd
Occupational Health Assessment Ltd is an SEQOHS Accredited and Certified B-Corp nationwide occupational health provider.
We provide rapid access to expert occupational health support for businesses right across the United Kingdom. Appointments are available nationwide within two days.
With a unique occupational health assessment service, night worker health assessments, 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.