Telephone consultation
When the Occupational Health service has received the referral form with all the necessary information and a copy of the Job Profile, an Occupational Health Nurse will telephone the employee to discuss their medical situation and absences.
Based on the information gathered from the telephone conversation and the medical condition, the nurse will then decide whether or not the employee needs to have a face to face consultation with an Occupational Health doctor or nurse to assess their condition further.
If the employee does not require a face to face to consultation then the nurse will write a report to you which you should receive 5 working days after employee consent.
Face to face consultation
If the employee requires a face to face appointment then an appointment will be made for the employee to attend an occupational health clinic.
As the manager, you will be notified when the appointment will take place.
Following a face to face or telephone consultation, with an Occupational Health doctor or nurse, you will receive a report.
Receiving the medical report
Both the employee and the line manager who makes the referral (where the employee consents) will receive a copy of the Occupational Health report.
After you have got the report, you should ideally take the opportunity to discuss this and agree the way forward with the employee.
If the case is complex then you should contact People Management for advice and support.
The report will be written in a standard format and will address any specific questions that you have asked to be answered. Due to medical confidentiality it may not be possible to reply to your questions in full but if this is the case then the report will inform you as to why this is not possible.
To assist you a standard set of questions has been compiled on the referral form. You should tick the appropriate questions that you would like the Occupational Health doctor or nurse to address in their report.
The report will be uploaded onto your portal account and you will receive an email notifying you that it is ready to view.
Disclosing medical information
Occupational Health Service medical reports are covered by the Access to Medical Records Act 1988. With written ‘informed consent’ from the employee the Occupational Health nurse or doctor may release confidential medical information to you in the report as to how their condition affects their ability to carry out the day to day duties of their role.
If the employee has not provided their ‘informed consent’, then the information that the Occupational Health doctor or nurse can disclose will be limited.
Referral for private medical treatment
The Occupational Health Service has the facility to refer Cumberland Council employees for private medical treatment such as physiotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, MRI scans and counselling.
Funding treatment
As a manager, you should balance the cost of funding treatment against the benefits to the employee’s condition and a speedier return to work.
You will only be asked for consent for physiotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy and counselling referrals after 6 initial sessions which are pre-authorised by the referral process.
No two cases are the same and as such you should consider such requests on a case by case basis and in conjunction with an up to date medical report from Occupational Health Service.
Any funding for treatments as above is met through directorate budgets.