On-Site Health Surveillance

What is Health Surveillance ?

“Health surveillance is putting in place systematic, regular and appropriate procedures to detect early signs of work related ill health and then acting upon the results. The aim is to identify and protect workers at increased risk and to check the long term effectiveness of measures to control risks to health. Employers are obliged to ensure that appropriate health surveillance is made available to employees for whom a risk assessment reveals a risk to their health.” – HSA 2007

Health Surveillance is a part of your company’s overall health and safety management program. Your safety statement and risk assessment will identify the hazards to health in the workplace and outline the appropriate control measures.Health surveillance is a means of checking that your control measures are effective and also identifying areas for continuous improvement. The assessment will also help to identify individual employees at increased risk from exposure to workplace hazards and who may require additional protection or training. The scope, nature and frequency of health surveillance will depend on the work you do and also legal requirements and specific regulations, e.g. chemical agents regulations, lead regulations, carcinogenic agents regulations.

Medwise Mobile Medical Health Surveillance:

Medwise Mobile Medical team will work with you and advise on a health surveillance program appropriate to your business needs. Our mobile unit will travel to you site and our trained staff will administer questionnaires, conduct examinations and specific testing on your employees s as required. The mobile unit is equipped for audiometry, keystone, vision screening, spirometry (lung function test), food hygiene screen, biological monitoring and other point of contact testing. Tests are performed according to ISO standards and national codes of practice.

An individual health surveillance report is provided confirming that the employee attended for surveillance and if any concerns were identified and if there are any work restrictions necessary to protect the employee's health. The follow up interval is also noted.

Employee consent, confidentiality and data protection issues:

Under Health and safety legislation, employees are obliged to cooperate with measures to protect their health and that of their colleagues. Employees written consent to engage in the health surveillance program is still required before proceeding with any testing.

At all stages of the workplace health surveillance program, the employee will be informed of any medical concerns and potential work related health issues. THe employee's medical details are confidential and will not be disclosed to the employer or any other third party without the employees written agreement. Medical information is highly sensitive personal data and the requirements of GDPR apply.

Medwise operates an open access policy in line with good occupational health practice. We make all documentation and records available to employees and their doctors.