Referral Process

An individual may be referred to occupational health (OH) where there is concern about their health, performance (where there may be health implications) or level of sickness absence. An assessment by an OH physician can provide objective information that can assist management in addressing these issues.

The management referral form is sent to the OH admin email address by the referring HR Business Partner. On receipt of the form an appointment will be sent out to the employee with a copy of the referral. Employees are requested to confirm attendance on receipt of their appointment.

When you have received confirmation of your appointment from Occupational Health you must confirm your attendance by e-mail: OHAdmin@ljmu.ac.uk, at least seven days prior to your appointment.

Please note that if you fail to confirm your appointment it will be allocated to someone else and you will be charged a £20.00 administration fee.

An initial assessment usually lasts about 45 minutes and aims to collect sufficient information to provide an accurate, objective and useful opinion regarding fitness to perform the job. The OH Unit does not investigate or treat any medical conditions in the same way as your General Practitioner or Hospital Consultant. The purpose of the interview is to confirm details about your medical condition and most importantly, how this may affect your work. For example, the doctor may need to examine you or assess your physical or mental level of function, either at work or away from the University if this is relevant. If there are any medical details that are unclear, the doctor may ask you for permission to request a report from your NHS doctor. The purpose of such a report would be only to confirm details about the condition affecting your work. We do not access your full medical records.

You are welcome to invite a friend or colleague to accompany you to the consultation. They may for example be able to provide additional information relevant to the assessment, about working conditions or domestic conditions. However, the doctor will not be able to discuss medical facts or matters concerning your employment with any friend or colleague who accompanies you. They are not there as an advocate but as a companion.

In some instances, it may be necessary to request further information from the individual’s general practitioner (GP) and/or hospital specialist. If this is the case the reason will be explained to the individual and they will be asked to sign a consent form allowing OH to approach their GP and/or hospital specialist for this information. Under the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988 the individual has a right to see this report before it is sent to OH. Sometimes and with consent, the OH professional may write to the individual’s GP giving information about the outcome of the OH assessment. This can be particularly helpful where there are clinical findings or work arrangements that the OH professional believes the GP should be informed of.

Reports to management

Following the consultation the doctor will send a report to the referring Business Partner. The content of a report will depend on the reason for the referral, the specific questions that have been asked and any necessary specific recommendations. Medical details are not usually disclosed unless this is deemed necessary when managing the individual in their work and when the individual has given their informed consent for disclosure.

In line with the General Medical Council guidance prior to the report being issued, the individual will be offered the opportunity to view a draft copy of the management report. Consent will be obtained from the individual by the OH physician and that consent can be withdrawn at any stage of the process.

If the individual feels that the report contains incorrect factual information this should be highlighted to the OH physician. If the individual feels that the OH physician's opinion is incorrect they may withdraw consent to the report being issued, in which case the OH physician will inform the referrer that consent has been withdrawn.

You have a specified time in which to review a report and make any comments back to the Occupational Health Unit. This time period is two working days if you receive the report by hand in the clinic or by email. If you receive the report by post then the deadline is five calendar days from the date of the report being posted.

In the absence of any comments being received by the specified deadline, the report will be submitted to the HR Business Partner. If there is a problem, or you have not received the report as requested, then you must contact the Occupational Health Unit before the deadline.

The Business Partner will contact you once all the relevant information has been considered.

Confidentiality

All reports and records are stored securely within the department in line with GDPR.

OH records are maintained to the same high standard of confidentiality as hospital or GP medical records, in accordance with the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998 and GDPR 2018.

An individual’s OH record will not be disclosed to anyone else outside OH without the individual’s informed consent.