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Hi Ellie Simple response; the GP has no responsibility for a person within the workplace and the arrogance with which he/she wrote directly to the company and not the Occuaptional Health Department is typical of GP's who have no idea what OH do. The GP is also rather inarticulate with regards to the law, in particular H&S law and his advice regarding it. Even though the risk assessment carried out by the trainer showed he was capable of operating a MHE this does not mean he was psychologically capable of carrying out this aspect of his job. If his GP had been doing his job properly he would have asked the chap's consultant specialist to consider investigating the poor concentration and memory problems, perhaps by referring for a cognitive assessment via a clinical psychologist. Memory problems and fluctuating concentraion are not unusual following cva, newly diagnosed epilepsy etc. If the restrictions that OH recommended had been maintained then this inident would not have taken place hence would have saved both the company and the chap alot of problems. I would suspect a letter to HR and line management stating that OH are specialists within the workplace and the GP is not and therefore if you wish to employ OH advisers for our specialist experience then accept it and implement it, seek advice from us when challenged and support us when the advice proves to be correct, and perhaps apologise when advice offered and accepted from another party proves to be incorrect. Remember that you give advice on the basis that HR and managers will accept it and implement it or otherwise, it is their choice. You could refer this chap for cognitive assessment yourself via Access to Work who have excellent Employment Psychologists, who would be able to do this for you. Hope this helps Cheers Pete Pete Judge Occupational Health Adviser Cardiff University Heath Park Campus 2nd Floor Cardigan House University Hospital of Wales Cardiff CF14 4XN 02920 748955 >>> Ellie Paige <[log in to unmask]> 04/01/2008 17:37 >>> Thanks for all the advice about health surveillance for employees exposed to Styrene. We undertake skin surveillance, respiratory questionnaire and spirometry, but did not know if we should be undertaking urine screening as well. Health and Safety chap wanting to know why we dont do dedicated 'styrene screening' in addition to our skin, respiratory and spirometry stuff!!?!! On another note, we have had an incident when OH advice has been challenged by a GP with a poor outcome. A chap had a CVA and recovered sufficiently to return to work. He was extremely emotional and appearred to have a poor concentration span, constantly flitting from topic to topic and outbursts of innappropriate emotion. Due to this the OH Advisor advised restriction upon him working with or around MHE, due to the concentration issue and he was allocated alternate duties, working with a colleague and never alone. His GP challenged the restriction directly to the employing company when the employee complained to him and stated that as his DVLA issued driving licence had not been withdrawn and he could continue to drive his car on the public highway, restricting his ability to use MHE was unwarrented, an infringment of his rights and was detrimental to his overall recovery due to the stress it was creating. As a result the company arranged an assesment with the MHE Trainer, allowed him to use MHE and he drove into stack of pallets on his 3rd shift, luckily no-one was injured although the MHE was badly damaged. When questionned about what had happened he stated his concentration had gone as he was so emotional!!! The long and short of it is....what advice could have been given? Was it unwarrented to intruduce restrictions on his MHE use when he was able to drive on the public highway? It some-one holds a DVLA licence does that superseed direct assessment of the employee and the neds / risks of the workplace? Any opinions greatly appreciated Elle ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please remove this footer before replying. OCC-HEALTH ARCHIVES: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/occ-health.html FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES AND EDUCATIONAL EVENTS: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/filearea.cgi?LMGT1=OCC-HEALTH OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH JOBS http://OHJobs.drmaze.net OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH NURSING EDUCATION http://www.aohne.org.uk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please remove this footer before replying. OCC-HEALTH ARCHIVES: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/occ-health.html FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES AND EDUCATIONAL EVENTS: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/filearea.cgi?LMGT1=OCC-HEALTH OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH JOBS http://OHJobs.drmaze.net OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH NURSING EDUCATION http://www.aohne.org.uk