You have a legal duty to ensure your employees are under periodic medical supervision if they work with specified hazards under certain conditions.
The specific hazards are:
The conditions are outlined in regulations and where the nature of the work brings your employees within those regulations, monitoring their health is referred to as 'statutory medical surveillance'. This is synonymous with 'occupational health surveillance'.
The relevant regulations are:
The purpose of statutory medical surveillance is to alert your employees to early signs of potential health problems caused by the work they are doing and provide advice on whether further exposure to the particular hazard is appropriate. The appointed doctor should make you aware of any emerging issues so you can review your risk assessment as appropriate, to ensure risks to your employees’ health are properly controlled.
If you need an appointed doctor, initially you should consider using a doctor already appointed for the relevant regulation. You can search online for a list of Appointed Doctors in your area. However, if an appointed doctor is not available, circumstances may require the assistance of another doctor (eg, a local GP or a doctor in your own occupational health service) who will need to apply to HSE for an appointment.
Social media
Javascript is required to use HSE website social media functionality.
Follow HSE on Twitter:
Follow @H_S_E