JISCMail - OCC-HEALTH Archives

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" <[log in to unmask]>
> 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
> Tel: 01235 770156
> Mob: 07778 518 027

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Helen Hannar
OH Advisor

OHServices (NE).
Tel:- 01388 777962
Mob:- 07950 154541
Fax:- 01388 777962