On Fri 01 Sep, Geoff Helliwell wrote:
> I have just finished sorting out a junior doctor for Exposure Prone
> Procedures
> who is HbSAg Positive but BeAg Negative, including doing viral load titre as
> required in Circular 2000/020, when I find he is moving to another Trust
> tomorrow (the 1st August and September handicaps).  Someone else out there
> will now have to finish the job......
> 
> Then it struck me :
> How much of the pre-employment work done in NHS OH is really just transfer
> between different parts of the same family ?
> How much resource is wasted on new pre-employments, repeat procedures,
> obtaining records etc. ?
> If someone has been judged fit to continue work in an High Dependency Unit
> setting despite taking an overdose of insulin from the ward (after proper
> Psychiatry and Occ Physician input), then how can I refuse her fitness to do
> the same work in a neighbouring trust ?
> If I find a Nursing Auxilliary with chronic back problems (and Disabled in
> DDA terms), why can she not be rehabilitated in a neighbouring trust with
> suitable vacancies (I am told she must resign and seek re-employment) ?
> 
> It seems that there is a political will to forge a more central NHS; banning
> all logos besides Blue NHS, central job advertising and the claim that the
> NHS is the largest employer in the EU.
> 
> Why therefore could there not be one pre-employment on joining, and then
> open transfer of records thereafter (no I don't want replies from lawyers to
> say they are seperate legal bodies - the DoH says it is one employer) ?
Nevertheless, the individual trusts do carry the legal can both in criminal
and in civil law. That is not just an academic point; it is a question of who
appears in court. 

I dare say there will be less incentive to re-screen transfers from other
trusts when the approaches to screening are demonstrably similar. Even so,
health status is not static so an individual might well develop problems
while at work - when they move to a new job (even in the same trust) there is
a good reason to do another check to make sure the change will not further
compromise their health.

Regards
Alf
-- 
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, EH3 9YW, UK
tel  +44 131 536 3251  fax  +44 131 536 3283



%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%