Employment health assessment guidance

  Work activity  
1 Contact with patients Yes Work in clinical areas or in laboratories where patients attend for investigations for research purposes and for staff requiring Honorary NHS Contracts.
No No direct contact with patients while working in clinical environments.
2 Undertaking or assisting with surgery or other ‘exposure prone procedures’ (EPIP) Yes
  • Surgery on patients, including obstetrics or dentistry or insertion of implantable pacemakers
  • Scrubbed assistant in a surgical procedure
  • Personally involved in trauma (A&E) care
  • Will undertake any other 'exposure prone procedure'
No Taking blood samples or inserting IV lines are not considered exposure prone procedures. If you need advice on whether particular work will count as exposure prone, contact Occupational Health.
3  Work with babies or young children Yes Work involving non-clinical contact with pre-school children e.g. work in Early Years Education Centre.
       
4 Work with hazard group 2 or 3 pathogens or Class 2 or 3 GMOs (includes laboratory work with unscreened blood or unfixed human tissues)  Yes Work involves direct:
  • handling of Hazard Group 2 or 3 pathogen cultures or
  • handling of samples which may contain such pathogens e.g. unscreened human blood or serum or
  • handling of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) classified as class 2 or class 3 projects on the basis of their risk to human health
 No Work is confined to handling blood/tissue samples in a clinical (hospital) environment.
Health clearance not required for any GMO Class 1 or Class 2 work with associated environmental risks.
Work with human tissue screened for blood borne viruses.
5  Work with animals, birds or insects  Yes Work will involve working with animals or with breeding colonies of insects (mosquitoes/drosophila) or birds for research purposes.
Include anyone who may have indirect contact with animals e.g. through shared use of laboratory where others work with live animals.
 No Work is confined to handling blood/tissue samples in a clinical (hospital) environment. Health clearance not required for any GMO Class 1 or Class 2 work with associated environmental risks. Work with human tissue screened for blood borne viruses.
6  Other work requiring health surveillance  Yes Health surveillance may be required for regular work with solder, epoxy resins, glutaraldehyde or other hazardous chemicals, machining of hardwoods or regular exposure to noise in excess of 85dbA - Check with local safety manager.
   
7  Regular driving on
College business		  Yes  

A regular requirement to drive a vehicle in order to carry out their duties. Includes use of mechanised pallet trucks, forklifts etc. (refer to Driving at Work Policy)
 No If the requirement to drive will be less than once per week, or is confined to optional use of a vehicle to commute or travel between work locations.
8  Accurate colour vision  Yes Only where accurate colour discrimination is essential to the job, i.e. to undertake tasks or required for safe operation of machinery discrimination of colour stains on slides etc.
   
9  Fieldwork or travel abroad  Yes Travel abroad on College business to countries where Malaria is endemic, lasting more than 3 months, to a remote area more than 24 hours form medical care or undertaking safety critical work/high risk activities e.g. abseiling, climbing, diving, caving.
 No Travel confined to meetings/conferences in Europe or north America.
10  Food handling  Yes Work will involve handling touching unwrapped foods to be consumed raw or to undergo further cooking.
 No Only foods handled are drinks or wrapped e.g. packaged sandwiches & biscuits
11  Safety-critical work  Yes Regular work poses a significant risk of injury to self or others in the event of sudden illness or loss of function by the person carrying out the work e.g. operating heavy lifting equipment, operating workshop machinery, work at height, direct handling of chemicals posing risk of significant injury or harm to health if spilt, electro magnetic fields in excess of 0.5mT generated by laboratory equipment.
 No Work will only occur occasionally. Laboratory-based work will not usually be classed as safety-critical unless it includes one or more of the features above.
12   Other work requiring health clearance   Yes Health clearance to meet the requirements of a joint employer or for a work placement or collaborative working with another institution.
Written guidance from any such external organisation is required.
   
13  Radiation  Yes

Where a new worker requires classification under the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017, first step is to contact the College’s Radiation Protection Officer/Safety department. Before your work can begin as a classified radiation worker, you will require a periodic health review. Radiation Officer usually instigates assessment. Please note OH outsource this assessment. We will also request attendance data from HR and Radiation data monitoring from the Radiation Protection Officer. OH will provide you with a form to complete. An appointment will be arranged by the external source who will then let us know that the assessment has been carried out.