London City Occupational Health

Quick access to expert support

Occupational Health in the City of London

London City Healthcare is a specialist business which helps people manage the health of their employees. A team of specially qualified doctors are at hand for you to access high quality medical advice, right when you need it – and based in the heart of the City.

Our occupational health service provides:

Fitness to work assessments

Appointments within 5 days, a pre-assessment phone call, guidance for referring managers and a full administration service included as standard. Read more below.

Risk assessments

From fitness to travel to full workstation assessments, we provide appointments within 5 days, plus full administration (invitation and recall) and support. Contact us for more info.

Pre-employment medicals

Make sure the people you're recruiting are fit for their role and get guidance on adjustments if they're needed. Online/paper questionnaire and face-to-face service available.

Occupational health (fitness to work) assessments

London City Healthcare provide an independent service to assist managers helping employees to work. Our occupational health professionals focus on fitness for work, taking into account any disabilities.

The first step is usually to make sure that anyone joining your team is fit for the role they are being recruited for, so we’d always suggest a pre-employment assessment is a sensible risk management tool. If poor health or absence from work become a concern, we’re able to help quickly and easily.

We’re pleased to be able to provide appointments within 5 days of a request, as well as an initial phone conversation with the assessing doctor, to help understand the presenting situation and to help advise on the best questions to ask in a referral. We’ll take care of all necessary consent and administration steps for you too.

Fitness for work

Occupational health is an area of healthcare that specialises in the relationship between health and work, specifically the effects of work on health, and the effects of ill health or disability on capacity to work. To support those employees who may be unfortunate enough to be ill, London City Healthcare can assess their “fitness to work”.

This means assessing how effectively a person can perform all the duties that the job involves and whether any reasonable adjustments to their role or working environment will help them to cope both mentally and physically with their current job.

Early intervention and specialist medical help offer the best prospect of a successful conclusion to a health problem at work. Most absent employees should be able to return to previous duties, however, some may require adjustments to their role or environment if they are to continue working successfully.

If there is an underlying medical condition or longer-term disability, this does not necessarily mean that the employee will be unfit for work. Sometime adjustments at work are suggested (e.g. working reduced hours for a limited period) that may be necessary to demonstrate you are doing all you can to support your employee appropriately. Our business helps you to meet your legal requirements regarding disability and health at work.

Where necessary, we can also help identify if the nature of an employees’ work might be having a detrimental effect on their health, in which case advice can be provided to avoid any further deterioration.

Predicting how a health condition may develop, or how much absence from work can be expected, in the future can be incredibly difficult and inexact. If surgery is anticipated it is usually possible to give an estimate of typical or likely absence duration.

Health can often be a complicated issue and sometimes it can take more than one assessment to provide a clear answer. The content of the report provided following an assessment is also often directly linked with the questions asked at the start of the assessment process, which is why we provide guidance and support on the best questions to ask for referring managers.

Management referral

In order to give you and your employee the best advice, we need to understand the problem clearly. We will provide you with a management referral form to help you collate the basic information we need to facilitate our assessment.

Sadly, we are unable to assess employees without a referral form being provided first, as we have to be able to demonstrate that we have acted fairly.

What will you get back from us?

In return for a professional fee, we will give you information that will enable you to make decisions about an employee’s health-related problems and also help you comply with legislation.

Although we will always try to be as helpful as possible, we can only answer the questions that you have asked of us in your referral.

We always try to make our reports as detailed and comprehensive as possible and (if asked in the referral) we will provide comment on:

whether we think an individual is fit for the role outlined to us
whether an underlying health condition is present or not
when an employer may expect an employee to return to work
recommendations regarding adjustments if we think the Equality Act may apply
suggestions for rehabilitation programmes

About informed consent

As in all types of medical practice, occupational health clinicians are bound by medical confidentiality.
All medical information given to us by employees is confidential, and can only be given to a third
party, including the employer, when the employee gives permission for this.

Similarly, the records we hold about employees are held securely and in confidence. Confidentiality and trust are essential to successful health management, employees may withhold information from occupational health, which although it might not be directly related to their job, may influence the nature of our advice and thus a rapid return to full function.

The duty imposed on us by the GMC to obtain informed consent means that we must let an employee know the occupational health professional’s opinion with respect to their work capacity or capability. This is often done during the assessment. We are obliged to provide a copy of our report to the employee, before it is released to your business.

The employee can see any information, including the referral form you provide to us, and can also insist upon factual changes to any report before it is sent to your business. Should additional information or clarification be required following receipt of the Occupational Health report, a supplementary report may be written. However, this supplementary report will need to be sent to the employee prior to releasing to you to ensure transparency for all parties. An employee cannot change the opinion of the OH practitioner if they do not agree with it.

Supporting an open approach and the need for informed consent, we think you are likely to get the
best results by consulting with and involving the employee closely with any referral to occupational health.

For anything other than routine medicals, it is important to advise the employee what issues are being raised before they are sent for an occupational health assessment.

To discuss arranging an occupational health referral, please contact our team on 02072363334.

Our Team

Read more about the background, experience and capabilities of our team of private Doctors. Each has extensive experience practising in the City.

Information

Browse our frequently asked questions, professional fee schedule, patient guides and information about our practice.