Health Surveillance

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Placement screening and fitness for work

FOHCUS was founded by Managing Director Adrian Mercer and has grown rapidly in recent years.

This culminated in the acquisition of Lancaster-based Sage Occupational Health in 2018, giving our company a strong presence across all North West England.

We are passionate about the work that we do to help employers run happy and productive companies by ensuring that their employees remain healthy and have the support they require when they need it.

Health surveillance and statutory medicals

An employee’s attendance for health surveillance is mandatory where a risk assessment has established that a need for health surveillance exists.

Employers have a general duty of care to ensure (so far as is reasonably practicable) the health, safety and welfare of all their employees.

Health surveillance is about having procedures in place to detect work-related ill health at an early stage and acting on the results. Health surveillance, therefore, can show whether control measures to reduce and avoid workplace health hazards are working.

It helps you meet your legal requirements under Health and Safety and ensures that the people who are working for you are fit and capable of doing so.

Depending on the nature of the company’s work, there will be several statutory tests that you may be required to undertake. In addition, there are number of other health checks that can be undertaken to monitor the on-going health of your staff. These include:
  • Hearing Tests (audiometry)
  • Lung Function Tests (spirometry)
  • Eye Sight Checks (near, distance and peripheral vision)
  • Skin Checks
  • Hand Arm Vibration checks (HAVS)
  • Safety Critical Medicals

Construction and Engineering Medicals Services include:
  • Safety critical medicals (construction standards)
  • Working at height medicals
  • Confined space medicals
  • Breathing apparatus medicals
  • Drivers medicals – HGV, forklift
  • Chester Step Test
  • Hand Arm Vibration
  • Musculoskeletal assessment
  • Lung function
  • Noise at work
  • Vision testing

Display Screen Equipment (DSE) workstation assessment and vision screening

We offer workstation assessments as required by the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment Regulations) 1992. Assessments are carried out for all DSE users by a qualified Occupational Health Adviser and include a full musculoskeletal assessment of the user, an appraisal of their workstation with any recommendations, a vision screen and full report to the employer.

The employer’s report will report on the findings of the workstation assessment and will make any recommendations for improvement to the work area. It will also advise you on ongoing requirements for vision testing and will recommend any follow up or onward specialist referrals.

Workstation assessments are also offered to pregnant employees to assist in their comfort at work.

All workstation assessments and vision screening are available for both office and home workstations.

Health risk assessment

We can arrange for one of our qualified Occupational Health Advisers to assist you in carrying health risk assessment for the following groups:

  • Pregnancy risk assessment
  • Disability risk assessment
  • Musculoskeletal and ergonomic risk assessment
  • Stress risk assessment
  • DSE workstation assessments and vision screening
  • Manual handling risk assessment
  • Lifestyle and wellbeing services including education, training and health promotion activities to maximise the health of your workforce

Travel, vaccine and immunisation services

This service offers occupational, seasonal (annual) influenza or travel vaccinations to employees via our consulting rooms in Lancaster and Liverpool.

Arrangements can be made for your employees to be vaccinated at their place of work if sufficient numbers of employees require vaccination, e.g. seasonal influenza (flu) vaccine.

A competent member of our nursing staff administers the vaccines and will let you know if any follow up is required. Follow up clinics will be arranged for you.

Occupational vaccines include:

  • Hepatitis B and antibody testing (healthcare workers, first aiders, cleaners)
  • Hepatitis A (cleaners, sewage workers)
  • Measles, rubella, varicella, BCG (healthcare workers) Seasonal influenza (flu)

We also offer biological testing for Hepatitis B immunity, all communicable diseases and blood borne viruses.

All travel services and vaccines are available including sterile medical kits, sun protection products, first aid travel kits and insect repellent products.

Forklift truck drivers

We offer all drivers’ assessments to ensure that your employees meet the DVLA standards for fitness to drive. These assessments can be carried out either at your work premises, if there is a need for a group of employees to be assessed, or at our consulting rooms in Lancaster or Liverpool.

Our services include assessment of medical fitness standards for all DVLA Group 1 and Group 2 standards. In addition to forklift truck and other mobile plant drivers, we also cover:

  • Company car and van drivers
  • Motorcars and motorcycles Chauffeur
  • Taxi and hackney carriage
  • Vision screening

Drug and alcohol services

FOHCUS can arrange for drug and alcohol screening to be carried out on your site.

Before this screening can commence, you need to have a suitable Drug & Alcohol policy in place.

We use an associated specialist drug & alcohol screening company to provide full chain of custody screening service across the UK. Services include:

  • Assistance with Drug & Alcohol policy writing
  • Assistance with staff training and helping your own staff administer workplace drug and alcohol screening
  • Onsite drug and alcohol testing by independent specialists, including:
    • Random
    • Pre-employment
    • For cause (vital for safety critical roles)

24-hour collection service

A 24-hour call out service is available where a competent collector will be onsite with you within 2 hours. This is a vital service following an accident or when ‘for cause’ screening is required, where an employee who is carrying out a safety critical role appears to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.