Health surveillance is “a scheme of repeated health checks which are used to identify ill health caused by work”. In the UK, health and safety law requires health surveillance when your workers are exposed to different health risks, even after you’ve put any controls in place.
Certain health risks and hazards mean that health surveillance should be required, for instance, noise, vibration, asbestos, lead, fumes, and ionising radiation etc. Risk assessments, health and safety assessments, and pre-placement assessments can help identify if your business legally requires health surveillance.
Health Surveillance with Choose Occupational Health:
At Choose we strive to help workforce’s remain happy and healthy. With our team of ranging in-house clinicians, we’re able to support robust health surveillance plans that cover:
- Audiometry
- Skin Assessment
- Hand Arm Vibration (HAVS)
- Lung Function
- Isocyanate Testing
The benefits of implementing health surveillance with occupational health:
By introducing a health surveillance scheme with occupational health, it enables early detection of ill-health so that interventions can be introduced, keeping employees healthy and remaining at work. It prevents long-term sickness, or can help workers return to work effectively, in turn creating a higher return on investments. Furthermore, arguably more importantly, it ensures your business is in line with any legal requirements and makes sure there’s a level of protection.
Sandra Holliday, Managing Director at Choose, explains how health surveillance works…
“Employers have a legal duty to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of their workers. The Health & Safety Executive has some excellent resources to help businesses assess what health surveillance requirements they have when completing workplace risk assessments. Health surveillance assessments will then focus on the hazards and risks in the workplace.
“Having a robust system in place to monitor the health of workers gives employers an early warning of ill-health effects from a workplace situation and can also help to highlight working control measures or practices that need improvement, which benefits the workers and the business by reducing the risk of injury and highlighting any equipment or training improvements.
“Occupational health sees the employee when they start in the role, and then regularly during their employment with a final medical just before they leave. This gives the employer a record of an employee’s health for the duration of their employment, helps to escalate any changes that are found as soon as possible while they are working in the role and for a business it also provides evidence to defend a claim of damages, should that be received in the future.
“As part of an appointment, the clinician asks about general health concerns, as often we are the first health professional a worker will have seen. This health contact can highlight concerns about blood pressure, that if untreated could lead to serious health problems; provide useful information to support those with reduced wellbeing and on occasions we pick up on something that can become more sinister if left untreated.”
For further information about the support we can offer you, contact the Choose team on 01228 513687 or office@chooseoh.co.uk