I will be away from my office until 6 April 2004 although you can
contact me via reception on extension 33063 (020 8383 3063 if calling
externally).
Many thanks
>>> OCC-HEALTH 04/05/04 09:45 >>>
Carol
I agree with you, FLTs are not health surveillance, they are fitness for
work assessments.
The HSE's guidance notes on "Safety in Working with Lift Trucks" (HSG6)
gives guidance on the medical standards for lift truck drivers and
states
that the assessment should be done at pre-employment and at five yearly
intervals from the age of 40 up to the age of 65 where they should have
annual assessments.
The Assessment is also recommended after an absence of more than 1 month
or
after a shorter absence if it is likely that the illness may have
affected
fitness to operate lift trucks, or if there is concern that they have a
health problem that is affecting their abilities to drive safely.
I think that we are getting confused purely with terminology rather than
selling our souls to management for financial gain.
Did anyone see the email round robin that was entitled "Health and
Safety
Awards" where an FLT, carrying a missile had fallen off the edge of the
loading bay drop? If there was ever a business case for developing a
urine
dip test to diagnose stupidity that was the it!!
Best wishes
Amanda Dowson
-----Original Message-----
From: Carole Wallace [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 31 March 2004 18:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Fork Lift Truck drivers
I'm up to be proved wrong on this but FLT driver "medicals" were never
Health Surveillance. Rather they sprung from the problems some employers
faced after years of putting the deaf, the blind and the daft on to
FLT's
when they could not find anywhere else to put them. These were the days
when
you found work for your employees, somewhere, anywhere rather than let
them
go if they had enough service in and they had served you well!
Again if my memory serves me fatalities involving FLT's caused HSE to
look
at Safety and Training for Lift Truck Operators and there later followed
guidance on Medical Fitness for operators. Most employers turned to
their OH
departments who taking note of the guidance from HSE, Medical Aspects of
Fitness to Drive and DVLA guidance for Medical Practitioners on
Standards of
Fitness to Drive developed Health Assessment for this group of employees
taking the standards set for HGV drivers as the norm.
Carol Wallace.
-----Original Message-----
From: Helen Hannar [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 31 March 2004 17:16
To: Carol Wallace
Subject: Re: Fork Lift Truck drivers
Some large employers are not keen to give up the idea of a Fork Lift
Medical!
I had mentioned this discussion to a Health and Safety manager of a
large
warehouse enviroment and his respose was that although it was not a
legal
requirement they preferred to continue with the 'medicals' as the Fork
Lift
Operators line managers were not keen to take the responsibility of
deciding
if some one was fit to drive a FLTruck!!
It reminds me of a local authority who would send employees that stunk
of
alcohol to OH to see if they were drunk..they would not decide if they
were
unfit to drive and so left it to OH.
> Message date : Mar 31 2004, 02:48 PM
> From : "Greta Thornbory"
> To : [log in to unmask]
> Copy to :
> Subject : Fork Lift Truck drivers
>
Going back to the enquiry earlier this year on health surveillance for
Fork
lift truck drivers I was surprised at what some people were doing - and
making money from! I made separate enquiries via an HSE contact, who
made it
quite clear at the time where the question first originated, and this is
the
official HSE response:
There is no regulatory requirement for health surveillance for FLT
operators.
>
> There are certain regulations which specify when health surveillance
will
> be required (such as COSHH). Health surveillance should also be
introduced
> where the risk assessment shows that all of the following 4 criteria
apply:
>
> There is an identifiable disease or adverse health condition
related to
> the work concerned; and
> valid techniques are available to detect indications of the disease
or
> condition; and
> there is a reasonable likelihood that the disease or condition may
occur
> under the particular condition of work; and
> surveillance is likely to further the protection of the health and
> safety of the employees to be covered.
>
> Unless these four criteria all apply when considering FLTs, there
would
> have to be a specific regulation that would impose health surveillance
for
> FLT operators.
>
> There is therefore no legal duty on employers of FLT operators to put
in
> place health surveillance programmes unless all of the four criteria
above
> apply. Whilst a certain level of health monitoring may be desirable,
there
> is no legal requirement to do so. The guidance "Safety In Working With
Lift
> Trucks" refers to gives advice for OH professionals about the
> medical fitness of operators of rider-operated lift trucks. However,
as it
> states, the "standard should be regarded as a guide which can be
adapted
to
> individual circumstances". The status of this is purely guidance.
Hope this helps clarify things a bit and we can get back to some
evidence
based practice and not a lot of nurses and doctors doing 'medicals'
because
they are nice little earners.
Greta Thornbory
> Consultant, Occupational Health & Education
> www.gtenterprises-uk.com <http://www.gtenterprises-uk.com/>
> Tel: 01235 770156
> Mob: 07778 518 027
>
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Helen Hannar
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OHServices (NE).
Tel:- 01388 777962
Mob:- 07950 154541
Fax:- 01388 777962
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