I agree with the premise that we are not experts in the particular medical condition but should be experts in the workplace and how this can accommodate the condition.  However, I don’t know when this article was written but I think it needs a bit of updating:

1)      GMC Guidelines on Occupational Health reports, Oct 2010 states that we do need to give the employee a chance to see what we have written.  I know that strictly speaking this only applies to doctors but in the OH provider market place my view is that we should all be complying with this.

2)      DDA has now been subsumed into the Equality Act.

3)      My understanding of tribunals is that they are not just about reasonableness.  That should be the basis of any decision but they are often more about whether the employer followed its own procedures and stuck fairly to what these state it should have done – even if this can appear unreasonable to the employee.  What is reasonable to one side might not appear reasonable to the other so advising that a decision will be solely based on reasonableness might be a bit of a red herring.

 

 Thanks

 

Lindsey

 

Lindsey Hall

Director and Independent Occupational Health Adviser

Split Dimension Ltd

Phone: 01454 852715

Fax: 01454 740045

Mobile: 07771 596111

Web: www.splitdimension.co.uk

Twitter: https://twitter.com/splitdimension

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From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Carr Barnes
Sent: 28 September 2012 20:59
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [OCC-HEALTH] Occupational health are not experts ...... discuss :)

 

Hello my esteemed colleagues

 

Just found this nice little sound bite that others might find helpful 

Most occupational health advisers will not be experts in the particular medical condition or impairment that someone has - but their specialism is in occupational effects

 

Source is http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/equality/disability_equality_toolkit/medical_information__making_the_most_of_experts.cfm.

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