Call for free occupational health care

The Society of Occupational Medicine says that at the moment only about a third of the UK workforce has access to occupational health services and these were usually paid for by the employer. GPs acknowledge that they don’t have the skills to assess complex health and work issues and struggle with the ethical and medical problems around issuing sick-notes. The recent government review undertaken by Dame Carol Black into the health of the working age population – Working for a Healthier Tomorrow – found that ill health in the working population was costing the country £100 billion a year and that around 175 million working days were lost to sickness in 2006. “If an employee is off sick, or struggling to stay at work because of their health, or has actually lost a job through illness or injury, the people who have the skills and the power to help them don’t work in any kind of ‘joined-up’ way,” said Society president Dr Gordon Parker. Occupational health – the provision of medical advice about health and work – was excluded from the NHS 60 years ago, and has remained largely on the fringes ever since.