Hi Lesley
You need to establish ground rules here otherwise every time they don't like your advice they may decide to ignore it and seek some else's or worse still use their own. This is basically going to undermine your credibility. You have to tactfully point out that if the case was ever to end up in an ET then they would have to justify why they pay for expert advice and then don't follow it. Unfortunately sometimes HR just love to know everything and think they are missing something. 'Knowing' won't make a jot of difference only assuage their curiosity. Having said that I do often try to persuade the individual to allow me to release enough medical info to help the employer understand what they are managing and nine time out of ten we come to an agreement on what is sufficient. HR or managers are then happy and understand what is going on. I do not subscribe to the position that the manager/HR should not have any medical info. If it is relevant and we are asking or advising that adjustments need to be put in place then it is often helpful to managers or HR to know why. This way they feel we are not being difficult. Obviously if the patient says no way then I respect that. But the GP's cert will have already given a clue as to the reason for absence so we are not telling them anything they do not already know. If the medical condition is not what is on the Cert then that is different.
You are the OH expert, they pay you to advise them.. Basically the employer can do what they like however they either trust OH or they don't. They can have their cake and eat it but it puts you in a difficult position.
Working with such an employer I would be looking in the jobs vacant!
Sue
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lesley Bamford
Sent: 29 November 2011 11:10
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [OCC-HEALTH] HR requesting reports
Hi All,
I was in a recent conversation with an HR advisor who thinks that it is OK to obtain an employees written consent to see the GP or consultant report that has been sent to me. She thinks that this will ensure that nothing is missed by HR.I obviously have concerns about this and pointed out to her the reasons why she should be confident that this wasn't necessary and was in fact dangerous practice as non medical people are trying to interpret medical information.
Do any of you wonderful eloquent and articulate individuals out there have anything more I can use going forward. I am absolutely sure that this is not the last of it!
Regards
Lesley
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