Occupational Health

• Hearing tests (audiometry) for staff exposed to noise,

• Lung function testing (spirometry) for staff exposed to respiratory sensitisers,

• Skin assessments for staff exposed to skin sensitisers,

• Hand Arm Vibration surveillance tier 1 to 4 for staff exposed to vibrating tools.

• Fork lift Truck Driver Medicals

• HGV/LGV Driver Medicals

• Work related vaccinations eg Hepatitis B, annual flu vaccinations, etc.

Our service includes providing advice and guidance around rehabilitation, adaptations and restrictions for employees returning to work after sickness absence (whether or not The Equality Act 2010 applies), including advice about staff whose performance at work is affected by health issues, and when an individual is likely to be able to return to work.

• Counselling for staff with psychological problems

• Physiotherapy for all those musculoskeletal aches and pains that can lead to time off work

• Workplace assessments of workstation areas or other work processes

• Telephone case management

Our clients provide regular feedback about our service, here are some of their comments:

“A welcoming atmosphere and surroundings. I greatly appreciate the advice and support”

“I have been impressed with my treatments and results”

“A wonderful service. I have felt fully supported over past few months post-illness.”

“I can’t fault anything. Brilliant nurse.”

“Always a very prompt, efficient service. A great asset and excellent service”

Occupational Health and Wellbeing Services

Working Well Centre

Newtown Road

Worcester

WR5 1JF

Tel: 01905 760693 or 01905 760694

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Fax: 01905 760121

Occupational Health is a specialty that is concerned with the effects of health on work and work on health. It also considers an individual’s health, ability and fitness to perform certain jobs/workplace tasks.

Occupational Health is an advisory service aimed at supporting people in the workplace, looking at both physical and mental aspects of employee health. It’s designed to keep employees healthy and safe whilst in the workplace and advise employers about potential risks that could have the potential to increase work related ill health.

Occupational Health is designed to support both employers and employees, offering advice and guidance to support proactive approach to managing the health of individuals.

Occupational Health is about keeping people healthy at work, and supporting employees if they have a medical condition that could have an impact on their workplace activities; these medical conditions may affect them or the work they undertake. It’s a support mechanism for an employer to access and support employees with health problems.

In some cases, employers have a duty under the Equality (disability) legislation to make reasonable adjustments or accommodations to your role or workplace, to accommodate an employee’s underlying medical condition under the Equality Act 2010, Occupational Health can provide advice and guidance on these adjustments.

OH Advisors and OH Physicians are qualified Nurses and Doctors who undertake specialist training, with background and qualifications in the field of Occupational Health Medicine. They also have the appropriate knowledge of Health and Safety and Employment Legislations. Most importantly they have experience in dealing with workplace related health.

There are several potential reasons and the most common are as follows:

1. You are/have been absent from work due to a health condition, injury or illness.

2. You may be attending work but a health condition, injury or illness is affecting your performance.

3. You have recently started and you require a new starter health screening for fitness to work.

4. You are required to complete health surveillance dependent on your employees Health and Safety requirements.

A referral into OH also gives you the opportunity to talk over, in confidence, any concerns you might have about your health in relation to your work with an experienced OH professional.

The report may include the following information:

• Opinion on your fitness for work.

• Nature of your reported health condition, injury or illness.

• Expected time frame for recovery and/or return to work.

• Potential modified duties and/or workplace adjustments.

• Return to work plan.

• Recommendations to address any identified issues/barriers.

• Functional education and guidance on health condition management.

• Opinion on applicability of The Equality Act provisions.

An employee doesn’t have to be absent from work to benefit from our services. Referrals can be made without the employee being off work if there are concerns regarding how the workplace is impacting upon their health or their health affecting their ability to work.

Please contact us for a referral form and price list. This can be sent electronically.

We have Health and Wellbeing departments in Worcester, Redditch and Kidderminster. We can undertake work on your premises if this is a better option for you. We offer telephone Case Management which can significantly reduce the time from referral to assessment being undertaken.

Once a referral has been made, arrangements will be made for either telephone or face to face assessment.

Following assessment, one of our Occupational Health Practitioners will send the referring manager a report making recommendations and addressing the issues or concerns raised in the referral letter, with a copy to the employee.

The SEQOHS Accredited Working Well Occupational Health department is part of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and, as well as offering health and Wellbeing services to small and medium sized enterprises, we also work across the NHS health economy in the county. By being part of the NHS, we can offer you and your business the peace of mind that the NHS brings.

By choosing our SEQOHS accredited service means you will be getting a Safe, Effective, Quality Occupational Health Service which is a professionally led accreditation scheme based on a set of standards for OH service in the UK, hosted and maintained by the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, and awarded by the ROYAL College of Physicians.

• Provide Occupational Health Specialists who have the necessary qualifications and competencies to undertake their work. Those in training will be adequately supervised.

• Proved facilities suitable for the services to be provided.

• Provide equipment that is adequately maintained.

• Professional codes are followed at all times. Clinical records, wherever held are maintained to standards which meet legal and regulatory compliance and professional practice recommendations and are audited or peer reviewed.

• Clinical governance and compliance with evidence based and consensus based guidelines as well as professional legal requirements will be maintained.

• Occupational Health are committed to assure that our service meets the existing UK Data Protection Act 1998 requirements, and the new requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations’ (GDPR), find our Privacy Statement here.

• Written policies and procedures are available for inspection and will be updated as required.

Taking good care of the health of your employees will bring major benefits for your business. The UK’s largest annual survey of sickness absence rates and costs shows that sickness absence was an average of 2.8% of working time per annum. This costs employers an average of £16 billion, or a median cost of £11 billion.

An estimated 137.3 million working days were lost due to sickness or injury in the UK in 2016. This is equivalent to 4.3 days per worker.(Office for National Statistics).

Involvement of Occupational Health professionals is an effective supportive tool in the management of long-term sickness absence. Early intervention can have a positive impact on reducing sickness absence ensuring appropriate, safe and supportive advice is provided to an organisation regarding an employee returning to work following ill health.

Working Well can provide impartial Occupational Health advice on both long and short term sickness absence situations and opinions can also be given in relation to ill health retirement. Training for managers is also vital for consistent good practice across your organisation and we can support your organisation to deliver this.

Improved Health and Wellbeing of employees

We offer:

• Useful Health and Wellbeing checks for individual employees in your place of work.

• Workplace health fairs, giving your people the opportunity to get advice on a healthy lifestyle

Shifting the focus to having a proactive approach to employee health and seeing the value of health promotion rather than counting the cost of ill health is now the mantra of many successful businesses.

Reduction in musculoskeletal disorders

The cost of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) to UK business and society is substantial. 8.9 million working days are lost due to work related musculo skeletal problems (2016-2017 Labour Force Survey) On average, each affected person took an estimated 17.6 days off work in that 12 month period.

Musculo-skeletal problems are very common and can be very painful. Within the workplace they may arise in relation to manual handling issues or workstation set up for example. The vast majority of problems are probably not due to any specific incident but are very disabling whilst they are ongoing. Musculo-skeletal problems commonly include back, neck, shoulder or wrist pain.

Both employees and managers can help to manage musculo-skeletal problems within the workplace and individuals can be helped to remain in work or to return to work at an earlier time with appropriate assistance and advice.

Some individuals with musculo-skeletal problems are likely to come within the remit of The Equality Act 2010 and therefore reasonable adjustments within the workplace must be considered.

Working Well is able to provide advice to support managers and employees in relation to these issues in the following ways:

• Management referral for specific advice regarding an employee

• Workplace assessments of workstation areas or other work processes

• Physiotherapy treatment.