Health Surveillance Process

Health surveillance is a system of regular health checks carried out on employees who are exposed to specific risks at work. The purpose is to detect early signs of work-related ill health and take action to prevent it from getting worse.

How do we arrange health surveillance in Academic Schools or Departments?

Academic Departments

Academic Schools are responsible for ensuring that there is a system in place to identify relevant employees or students who require health surveillance. One they are identified they should enrol their staff and students where appropriate and keep a record of the health surveillance results.

In order to ensure employees and students are invited to attend for health surveillance the following guidance should be followed:

Groups requiring health surveillance

The School management should identify, in consultation with their health and Safety Coordinator or H&S Services the type of assessments required for each worker based on their exposure profile.
The list of workers and the types of assessments required should be sent to Occupational Health Services.

Following receipt of a list of workers who require surveillance the Occupational Health services will contact the school /manager to arrange days which are appropriate for the health surveillance to be carried out on.

Where an individual requires health surveillance the Occupational Health Services will contact the employee by phone or email and arrange an appointment. This appointment will be made within 5 to 10 working days of receiving the form.

New workers

All new workers requiring health surveillance should complete the Health Surveillance enrolment form and return to occupational Health Service - occupationalhealth@reading.ac.uk.

Occupational Health Service will contact the employee by phone or email and arrange an appointment. This appointment will be made within 5 to 10 working days of receiving the form.

Non-attendance of appointments

Where the need for health surveillance is identified the employee is required to comply with the arrangements and attend appointments or complete the required questionnaires.
If they fail to attend the arranged appointment or complete the questionnaires Occupational Health will be unable to confirm that the employee is fit for work and it may be necessary to prohibit the employee or student from working with certain substances or from working in certain areas.

Outcome of Health Surveillance

The employer is required to hold a health record for individuals who have undergone health surveillance. This is not part of the occupational health record and gives details of the employee’s fitness for work and the health surveillance they have had.

Occupational health will inform the manager and employee of the outcome of health surveillance by providing an individual health record. This will be provided within 5-10 days of the appointment.
The test results will remain confidential to Occupational Health and will not be shared with managers or supervisors.

Where health surveillance has identified an issue, the case will be referred to an occupational health physician or an external team as felt appropriate e.g. referral to the Royal Brompton Hospital for those with respiratory issues or symptoms.

The manager and HR will be informed of the outcome of the appointment and where possible if the condition is known or is likely to be work related.

Recall for Health Surveillance

Employees who are enrolled in the health surveillance programme will be recalled on a repeat annual basis by Occupational Health. Where it is appropriate an employee may be recalled on a more frequent basis.

If you have any questions please do contact Occupational Health - occupationalhealth@reading.ac.uk