Occupational health

No – the Trust’s policy is that anyone who has experienced these symptoms has to be free of them a minimum of 48 hours before they can return to work.

No – we have to assume that the primary cause may be infectious and the Trust’s policy would still apply.

Please complete and send us a self-referral form or a manager can refer you to the service.

You need to speak to your manager in the first instance and if they require some advice from OH they can contact us on your behalf.

We offer a number of drop-in clinics across the Trust/County. Details of these can be found above, under the heading ‘Satellite clinics’.

Complete the form which is available above, under the heading ‘Occupational health forms’.

This is because we may require additional information about a health condition you may have declared on your pre-placement form.

We cannot offer GP services through OH, so you will need to go through your own GP practice.

Report this to your Manager immediately and either they will refer you to us or you can complete a self-referral form. An appointment will be made for one of the nurses to perform an assessment of your condition.

Contact the needlestick pager via the switchboard. During OH opening hours you will speak to one of our clinicians. Out of hours and ED clinician will speak to you. Please see the advice on our Needlestick/Body Fluid incident page.

You can speak to an OH nurse on Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 1230 and 1600, Tuesday and Thursday between 0830 and 1200. Our direct telephone number is: 01872 252773.

Some computer users may experience intermittent aches and pains in their hands, wrists, arms, neck, shoulders or back (i.e. to their musculoskeletal system), especially after long periods of uninterrupted computer work.

If this happens, and you are unable to rectify the problem by adjusting your workstation set up, you should alert your line manager. Usually these aches and pains do not last, but in a few cases they may become more persistent, therefore don’t ignore them. Most problems of this nature can be prevented by good workplace design and good working practices.

Problems do not arise directly from the computers themselves, but from the way in which they are used. The problems can be avoided altogether by good workplace and job design and by the way you use your equipment and workstation.

There are no indications, from extensive research, that computers will cause disease or permanent damage to eyes. But the fatigue of intensive computer work can cause discomfort, even to healthy eyes. Because it gives your eyes more demanding tasks, it might also make you aware of an eye problem that you did not know about before. It doesn’t help your eyes if the computer is badly positioned, or if the workplace is poorly lit. Drifting or flickering images can be very tiring and must be corrected.

Yes, headaches can result from many factors associated with computer work. For example, stress from the pace of work, anxiety and tension, the need for new glasses or a change of lenses, poor image quality, glare from the screen, poor posture, or a combination of these.

If you are experiencing headaches, you should check your workstation set up and consider the amount of time you are spending on your computer without breaks. If you are unable to find the problem causing you headaches and you feel they are work related, we suggest you contact your DSE assessor initially or OH Department.

This depends entirely on the type of work you are doing. You certainly should not work for more than one hour at a stretch without a change to some other activity, and taking a short posture break.

If you have problems you think might be connected with your computer work you should talk to your manager or departmental DSE assessor. The Occupational Health Service can advise on problems that cannot be sorted out within the Service.