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#1 Posted : 22 December 2005 06:36:00(UTC)
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Posted By Andrew Böber
Bit of a revisit on this subject. I am in the process of establishing a robust Health Surveillance service within the society I work for and was looking for feedback on the issue of pre-employment health questionnaires.

I have a copy of something I want to use but present have no Occupational Health Nurse to process this, however is it unreasonable for me to process these as a Chartered Safety & Health Practitioner?

This is, of course, asssuming that I implement complete confiedntiuality re. these establish in context to the Data Protection Act.

This is a starting measure to illustrate the need to an OHU commitment.

I’m also curious to what sort of Health Promotion schemes others may be running within their own organisations? Anything you can share with me would be great (either on the forum or directly to me).

If anyone has already an excel doc which provides assitance to a Health Surveillance I would also be keen to get a copy – or indeed any other sort of software.

All help welcome.

AJRB

Andrew Robertson-Böber
PGCert CMIOSH
Chartered Safety & Health Practitioner
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#2 Posted : 25 December 2005 14:15:00(UTC)
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Posted By Andrew Robertson-Böber
Just to bring this back into recent messages I still would be very interested to hear if anyone has an opinion on these issues.

Andrew
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#3 Posted : 25 December 2005 16:03:00(UTC)
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Posted By Bill Fisher
Andrew

I would caution your review of information purely on the basis of Chartership.

Do you have the required knowledge and understanding to Interpret the information? How will you proceed if they throw up a problem?

I would suggest setting up an approach with HR or the appropriate central manager, rather than doing this on your own. I would also suggest a call-forward service from, perhaps the local GPs.

Regards

Bill
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#4 Posted : 25 December 2005 19:57:00(UTC)
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Posted By Andrew Robertson-Böber
Bill

I have the level of understanding to interpret this information and would use OH service if problem was thrown up but I wouldn't know if a prob existed were I not to run scheme. This is integrating into my own MPHil in Epidemiology.

However, the notion of approach the correct level of HR Management in this instance is not that useful as I am that level of HR Management.

As I work in a zoological collection the realization of a Health Surveillance is a lot more fundamental than as biological risks have a higher impact - hence partly the reason why of posing this question. To justify the increased need of external OH services I will need to undertake and establish an initial system.

Andrew
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#5 Posted : 25 December 2005 20:34:00(UTC)
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Posted By Bill Fisher
Andrew

Given your new wealth of background information it is obvious that my earlier queries were a waste of time. Indeed if I was aware of your background and current role I probably wouldn't have wasted my time responding.

This of course is the difficulty when there is not a full picture.

Good luck in your search for info.

Bill
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#6 Posted : 25 December 2005 22:31:00(UTC)
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Posted By Bill Fisher
Andrew

I am sorry that I had not realised that you had MPhil nor that you were an HR specialist but given that you refer to biological risks I would say the same again (but to clarify this time, only you can answer that).

Do you consider that you have the competence (notwithstanding your obvious training and experience) to process what you ask.

The fact that you are Chartered has nothing to do with it!

Regards

Bill
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#7 Posted : 26 December 2005 20:41:00(UTC)
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Posted By Andrew Robertson-Böber
I may more curious to hear back from other experience of undertaking such surveillance programs as although one can divert this out to external OH services there must remain an element of control and monitoring on part of the employer / manager.

Andrew
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#8 Posted : 26 December 2005 22:14:00(UTC)
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Posted By Scottie CMIOSH
I've only been involved setting up health surveillance from scratch in 2 companies and I am not a medical person but surely medical ethics must play a part and so you will need a medically (ethically) bound person to be bound by said ethics and give confidence to the workforce.
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#9 Posted : 27 December 2005 10:38:00(UTC)
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Posted By bigwhistle
Leave it to the people who had to take a degree/diploma in the subject or risk getting slaughtered in Court.
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#10 Posted : 27 December 2005 14:52:00(UTC)
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Posted By Andrew Robertson-Böber
However, vicariously this would still fall upon the Employer and in doing so ourselves as competent appointed persons.

Andrew
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#11 Posted : 27 December 2005 17:08:00(UTC)
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Posted By Bill Fisher
Andrew

Of course you are right that it would fall upon the employer, but ....

I would take you back to a sentence in your original posting and a subsequent posting of mine:

"I have a copy of something I want to use but present have no Occupational Health Nurse to process this, however is it unreasonable for me to process these as a Chartered Safety & Health Practitioner?".

You later state "still fall upon the Employer and in doing so ourselves as competent appointed persons."

And I would ask a) "competent" in what? and b) "appointed" for what?

I would guess that you are your society's source of advice and guidance - but that does not mean that you are competent to undertake every task - however you are likely to be copmpetent to ensure it happens.

So in answer to your original question, based on the various interactions here, I would say that it is not "unreasonable" for you to process them but not on the credentials of Chartership nor (to be bold) on what appears to be an uncertainty on your part. (If I have guaged that wrong then I am sorry!)

Other respondents seem to suggest a similar view?

Regards

Bill




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#12 Posted : 28 December 2005 01:04:00(UTC)
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Posted By Andrew Robertson-Böber
Bill

Agree with your points.


What has really got me curious is how sending out a pro forma to refer to OHU would apply to the Medical Reports Act 1988?

More importantly for those of us who are already using systems like Norton Waugh to record accident records of employee, public etc.

I know this seems like a lot of questions but I feel it one of those topic which merits it.

Andrew

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#13 Posted : 28 December 2005 09:17:00(UTC)
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Posted By Ian Derbyshire
Dear Andrew,

What you propose is risky.

Another major difficulty is the Disability Discrimination Act. You need to consider what you would do if you saw something on a Pre-employment Health Questionnaire that you thought could cause problems in employment and then what you would do about it - for example a history of back problems for a manual worker or epilepsy in a multi-skilled fitter. The DDA prevents us from discriminating against those with health problems. You really do need an experienced nurse or doctor to screen these forms "in confidence". Without the necessary expertise, it would probably be safer not to screen at all, then relying on the applicant to decide him/herself whether he or she is fit for the job and then have a robust contractural clause requiring all employees to inform the company of any health problem that may affect or be affected by work.

I deal with several agencies who provide basic sceening services at a minimal cost. If you give me a broad location I may be able to put you in touch with someone reasonable.

Regards,

Ian Derbyshire RGN OHND MIOSH
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