Occupational Health for GPs and Practice Staff
Page contents
Introduction
Practices have a legal reasonability under the Health & Safety at Work Act to identify hazards that any employee may face and put in systems to reduce the risk of harm to their staff, part of this is immunisations and infectious diseases.
Practice Staff
As part of this Practices should ensure they have logged for each employee (clinical and non-clinical) their immunisation history or a risk assessment as to why this is not required. The list of vaccinations this applies to can be found via the web link below:
GP mythbuster 37: Immunising healthcare staff. Further information can be found in Chapter 12 of the Green Book
Practices can choose to do the risk assessment themselves but can only vaccinate their own staff (ie provide an internal Occupational Health Service) if their MDO confirms they are indemnified to do so. Practices are strongly advised to check this with their MDO. To be clear, CNSGP (the state backed indemnity scheme) does not cover occupational health for staff employed by the practice. The alternative is to contract this out to another practice or provider. The costs of this, including the costs of any purchased vaccines are met by the practice as part of their employment costs of staff, apart from specific NHS schemes such as MMR.
MMR For Practice Staff
The Green Book Chapter 12 details information for the Immunisation of healthcare and laboratory staff.
Gov.uk also has a webpage entitled MMR for all: general leaflet. This leaflet explains the measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine for all ages.
We would advise that for any staff member over the age of 16 who has not received 2 doses of MMR they are eligible to receive the vaccine which can be given by the patient’s own GP who is able to claim the fee for this.
It should be noted that people born before 1970 are likely to have immunity from exposure or single vaccine but this doesn’t preclude them from having an MMR if in doubt.
On the following weblink you can download an algorithm that provides information on what to do if the vaccination status of an individual is uncertain or incomplete. Vaccination of individuals with uncertain or incomplete immunisation . Please also refer to the relevant pages in the Green Book.
Posters and resources can be found at www.healthpublications.gov.uk
Older adults
Adults born in the UK before 1970 are likely to have had measles, mumps and rubella as a child or to have had single measles or rubella vaccines which were used before MMR was introduced in 1988.
If you are unsure whether or not you have had these infections or the vaccines to protect against them, you can ask your GP to vaccinate you. You will need two doses, one month apart. Even if you have had the vaccines before, you will not come to any harm from having extra doses as your immune system will recognize and quickly destroy the vaccine viruses.
GPs
NHSE have commissioned and fund Heales Medical to provide occupational health services for GPs only. This includes a number of services which are listed that require no payment by the individual or practice:
Needle Stick Injury
Heales Medical provide a needle stick injury service for all members of staff. This includes a risk assessment, confidential advice and support following a needlestick/sharps injury.
To access this you need to call 03333 449 006 and this is available Monday – Friday 9.00 – 5.00 pm. There is recorded advice & a message service available outside of these hours.
Relevant information for needlestick injury and sharps can also be found on the following links
- NHS.uk
- BMA
- CQC
- Safe management of sharps and inoculation injuries Policy for General Practice – Infection Prevention Control
- Safe disposal of waste, including sharps Policy for General Practice – Infection Prevention Control
Heales Medical
To access the services commissioned by NHSE as described above, you need to register with Heales Medical. This will ask you for an authentication/finance code which is your practice code e.g J12345.
Click here to register, the “Register your Clinic” button is at the bottom of the page
The Gov.uk website offer advise regarding Occupational Health Service providers and says:
Occupational health support can be very helpful in complex cases and when work may be affecting your staff’s health. Occupational health services are sometimes provided by NHS or local authority services. To find details of providers in your area, contact:
Commercial Occupational Health Provider Association
NHS Health at Work Network – Support for Business
Supporting organisational health and well being professionals
Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Service : who offer a list of accredited occupational health service providers.