Safety Critical Medicals

Safety Critical Medicals give you and your clients peace of mind that workers are fit for the task being carried out.

Under current Health and Safety legislation, employers have a duty of care to safeguard the health and safety of their employees. This is particularly relevant to those carrying out safety-critical tasks. It is important that safety-critical workers are not suffering from medical conditions or undergoing any medical treatment which is likely to cause sudden loss of consciousness or incapacity, impairment of awareness, concentration, balance or coordination or significant limitation of mobility.

What is a safety critical worker? 
The term “safety critical worker” is defined as: Where the ill health of an individual may compromise their ability to undertake a task defined as safety critical, thereby posing a significant risk to the health and safety of others.” (CBH, 2015). This includes plant operators; scaffolder/rigger; slinger/signaller/banksman/traffic marshal; steel erector structural/fabricator; specialist access workers; steeplejack; tunnel boring gangs; roadside (high speed); tunnelling, confined space workers.

What will the medical consist of? 
The medical will include a face-to-face consultation with an occupational health nurse or technician, where you will be asked questions about your health, lifestyle and job. Some basic observations will be taken, such as height, weight, BMI, blood pressure, vision check, mental health assessment and musculoskeletal assessment. Depending on the job you do additional test such as spirometry (lung function test) and audiometry (hearing test) and Drug and Alcohol Screen may also be performed. A Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) assessment may also be carried out.