Posted By Learning 24/7 I have been asked to do a risk assessment for a member of staff who is awaiting a hysterectomy. She has been off work for a considerable period of time for ongoing tests etc, and now she has been told by her doctor there is no reason for her not to work, but must avoid heavy lifting. Her Manager is concerned as her job involves considerable bending to remove, fill and load trays, from waist to lower calf height, filled with what could be the weight of around a dozen cans of drink at the lower level. Due to the nature of the job and the small quantity of personnel involved in the procedure, it is neither possible for her to avoid bending or lifting, nor give her an alternative job to do. The Company are concerned about her medically doing her job and I think rightly so. I would be really grateful for some assistance here, on questions that should be included in this risk assessment and the way to approach it, as I have no experience in either capacity! Many thanks

Posted By Learning 24/7 Thanks S, There is no other work she could do as it's a very small unit. It seems her desire to return to work has only surfaced since her GP has stopped signing her off. I have been asked to do a R/A to assess the risks, to ensure we don't subject her to anything that could make her worse and presumably so that HR have the facts to hand so they can lay her off - we don't have an Occupational Health person as such. L

Posted By Bob Youel engage an occupational health specialist and do not undertake the RA on your own [include HR & the persons who already undertake the job for the generalist RA and include the individual person & the specialist for the individual RA] and take note of previous postings as they have hit the nail on the head noting that you should already have a set of RA's in place to go on it sounds like the job could contribute to others getting problems so re evaluate the way its done ASAP