Transcript Occupational Health update

Occupational Health update
David Maslen-Jones
RGN MBA CMIOSH
Department of Health Boorman Champion for NHS London
Contents
• The Equality Act
• Screening for Doctors
The Equality Act 2010: Section 60
• “It is illegal to ask job applicants questions about their health”
• 1: Before They make an offer of employment, both conditional or
unconditional
• 2: Where they are not in a position to offer work straight away (i.e.
before including them in a pool of applicants from whom they intend
to select a person to offer work)
Equality Act 2010: Basics
The Act harmonises existing provisions and defines discrimination in terms
of nine “protected characteristics”
1: Age
2: Disability
3: Gender re-assignment
4: Marriage and civil partnerships
5: Pregnancy and Maternity
6: Race
7: Religion or Belief
8: Sex
9: Sexual Orientation
Discrimination arising from disability
• It is unlawful to treat a disabled person
unfavourably because of something arising from
the disability, for example the need to take a
period of disability related absence
Protecting Carers from discrimination
• An employer cannot refuse to recruit or promote
someone because of their caring responsibilities
• For example: caring for a disabled person or having
caring responsibilities at either end of the age spectrum,
that is caring for a child or an elderly relative
• Attridge Law LLP v Coleman
Exceptions:
• Employers may ask questions to establish whether or not an
applicant will be able to carry out a function that is intrinsic to the
work concerned
• Intrinsic means “absolutely fundamental” to the job
• To make reasonable adjustments prior to interview
• Where there is “Positive Action” to recruit disabled people
• Where it is an occupational requirement
Medical Personnel will ask in the offer letter
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Non clinical staff
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“Do you have any disability which may affect your work, for which you may need
adjustments to your job or workplace?”
•
If the answer were yes then the line manager/HR/OH would deal with it as they
already do now when this arises during employment or after long term sickness
absence.
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Clinical/Safety Critical posts
•
Clinical staff in safety critical posts will need to be treated slightly differently by having
minimal screening together with the obligatory communicable diseases questions
which the current changes will not impact on.
It is likely that there will be a question for this group along the lines of
“Are you currently on any medication and have you been under the care of a doctor in
the last five years?”
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(NHS Employers: 2010)
What are you doing
• NICE TB Guidance
• Immunisation Validation
• Health at Work questionnaire
• What other questions should we include ?
• Latex
• Need for reasonable adjustment
Doctors screening
The History of screening for medics
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Hippocratic Oath
Guidance on Hepatitis B
Serious Communicable diseases
The Green Book
Dh Guidance
Serious Communicable diseases
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New to the NHS
New to a role involving EPP
HCW from abroad
IVS-British Laboratory
Holding Clearance Data
• Paper Records
• The Smart Card
• ESR
Issues
• Confidentiality
• Time
• Cost
A Solution for London
• LCOHPS
• Variations in OH Software
• McKesson
Junior Doctors Changeover group
• Links developed between group and London Confederation of
Occupational Health Practitioners (David Maslen-Jones and John
Harrison)
• No longer concerns about accepting records from each other across
London
• HRD’s need to nominate people within Occupational Health
Departments to have user responsibility (URP)
• Group recommend bi-directional link built between ESR and existing
systems....cost v benefit