Professional Standards

Occupational health clinicians are bound by a strict code of conduct including confidentiality, accountability, and consent.

All nursing and medical staff working in those capacities within the Occupational health team are registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for nurses or the general medical Council (GMC) for physicians. Specialist Occupational Health Advisors and Physicians hold further qualifications, recordable with their relevant registering body in Occupational health.

Standards

Clinicians must follow various standards and guidance for practice, examples of these include:

Confidentiality

Occupational Health provides an impartial, confidential service. This means that personal information is treated in medical confidence, and not shared unless the employee/student gives consent. The exception to this is if information is passed on which is considered to pose significant risk to health and safety of the individual or others. Refer to below for more information on consent. All staff are made aware of the requirements and specifics of dealing with the type of information held by occupational health.

Accountability and Responsibility

Occupational health staff are personally accountable for their actions and omissions in practice and must always:

  • Be able to justify their decisions.
  • Act lawfully, whether those laws relate to their professional practice or personal life.
  • Implicit in all of the above is that people in the care of occupational health must be able to trust us with their health and wellbeing.

Furthermore, there is the need to:

  • Deliver occupational health services based on the best available evidence or best practice.
  • Always provide a high standard of occupational health services.
  • Work with others to protect and promote the health and wellbeing of those who utilise our services.

Clinicians being hindered in working within the code have a duty to act and must inform senior manager(s)if they experience problems that prevent working within this Code or other nationally agreed standards.

Consent

Occupational health guidance requires employees/student consent to disclose information to employers. Occupational health has a significant but difficult role when dealing with consent to disclose information to an employer.

Occupational health employees are governed by professional standards, medical ethics guidance from the Faculty of Occupational medicine and from the Nursing and Midwifery Council – which requires medical confidentiality.

Employers seeking information from occupational health regarding an employee/student health, must be aware that according to guidance from the General medical Council (GMC) and Nursing and Midwifery Council that consent is required before disclosing information.

Consent can be obtained verbally or in writing. An employee/student has the right to change their level of consent or withdraw consent to release information at any time.

Privacy Notice

This privacy notice provides information about how the University collects and uses your personal information in relation to GDPR requirements. 

Privacy Notice