Sickness records available to occupational health

Guidance on occupational health is to be issued shortly which will cover all these recommendations. Together with the English National Board's new guidelines, this guidance will establish better procedures for selection of student nurses for training, the selection of staff to work on children's wards and the follow up of staff who have a history of excessive absence through sickness.

As set out in Recommendation 1, proposals relating to access to and sharing of employee health data must now comply with current legislation, including the Equality Act 2010, the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Act. This recommendation has therefore been superseded. The current position requires that occupational health referrals set out reasons for referral, with the employee’s consent.

NHS England’s Growing Occupational Health and Wellbeing Together strategy (January 2023) provides a long-term roadmap to improve the health and wellbeing of the NHS workforce by growing our occupational health and wellbeing services and people.

In November 1994, the Secretary of State for Health said that guidance on occupational health was to be issued shortly to cover this recommendation. The Secretary of State said that, together with the English National Board’s new guidelines, this guidance would establish better procedures for selection of student nurses for training, the selection of staff to work on children’s wards and the follow up of staff with a history of excessive absence through sickness.