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Posted By Shirley Duffus
Help - As a responsible employer we have recommended that our operatives contact their GP and get a Hep B vaccination, cost to be paid by us. (We are an Environmental and Security Company) This has worked perfectly for years. Now, new employees are being advised by their GP to contact their employer and ask the Occupational Health Provider (or a Company Doctor) to undertake this task. We are a National Company, but don't have have such a department or access to a Company Doctor. Does anyone know if there are new rules regarding Vaccinations or can provide a solution to this problem?
Thanks in advance.
Shirley
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Posted By Diane Thomason
Shirley
The General Practitioners Committee issued guidance to GPs in August 2005 about this. GPs are not required to provide HepB vaccinations for occupational purposes, and as you say, they are advised to tell people to go to their employer's OH service. The guidance stresses that provision of vaccinations required for work purposes is the responsibility of the employer.
If you don't have an OH service you will either have to engage the services of an OH provider, e.g. NHS Plus:
http://www.nhsplus.nhs.uk/
or you could enter into a contract with a GP practice to provide the vaccinations. They are allowed to do this. You (the employer) will have to pay, and you are not allowed to pass the cost onto the employees.
Hope this helps, contact me direct if you like to discuss.
Diane
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Posted By Alison WR
Shirley,
I suggest you contract in some Occ Health advice. Our circumstances will differ from yours, but our advisers strongly recommended against vaccination because the risk of exposure to Hep B was much lower than the risk of side effects from the vaccine.
Alison
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Posted By John Lewis
My company is in a very similar position to Shirleys in that we have some 70 medical reps all over the country. I rang NHS plus and a very helpful lady told me that GP's are still allowed to do immunisations, but they will question anyone who requests it thoroughly.
In our case Hep B is needed because of the possibility of contracting the disease when dealing with patients in operating theatres as they are required to do from time to time. If anyone is able to provide the name of a national organisation who can carry out immunisation on a contract basis then I am sure Shirley and me will be more than happy to approach them.
John
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Posted By Diane Thomason
GPs are indeed still ALLOWED to do vaccinations - but the GPC guidance is very clear that if an employed person is requesting HepB vaccination for the purposes of their employment, they should be directed back to their employer, who should provide the vaccinations at employer's expense.
We use a national OH provider and if you contact me directly I'll be happy to tell you who they are. We selected them through a tendering process.
The NHS Plus website http://www.nhsplus.nhs.uk/miscpages/about.asp
gives details of the OH services they can provide, which include immunisation. The website has a search function so you can find the unit local to any site you have.
Alternatively you could enter into a contract with a GP surgery local to each of your sites.
Regards
Diane
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Posted By Andrew Böber
NHS Royal Free in London are v good for this sort of thing.
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Posted By Lynne Betts
Working as a OH nurse in the health sector,i would definately recommend hep b vaccinations to all those who are potentially at risk.
The risk of maybe suffering from side effects surely is a risk worth taking. It is surely far better to be protected from a disease such as Hep B.There are also implications to the employer if an employee goes on to contract such a disease and had not been vaccinated or at least offered the vaccine.
Ensure the employee is well informed about the vaccine and gives consent(which should be documented).
Hope this helps.
L
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