Return to work Medicals
There are of course those people who simply don’t want to be off ill and these people, in
their own way, can be as much of a concern as those people who pull a regular ‘sicky’.
Again determining if that person is fit to return to work needs to be undertaken with a
medical examination. There are many people, who will say they are fit to work after a long
sickness absence, but where their doctor has not signed them back fit to work or where
their line manager has concerns that they are not yet fit enough to return regardless of
what their own GP may say.
In these instances a specialist medical by an Occupational Health doctor enables a review
of the case to be undertaken and in conjunction with the job description a planned
phased return to work to be implemented with the approval of both the employee and
the employer.
Whenever you are confronted with a situation like this you should bare in mind that a full
return to work by the employee may well be too much too soon and the end result is that
they can’t cope and another period of sickness absence is the result. Although a phased
return to work may not always seem to be the best solution for the employer it has often
been proved to save a considerable amount of time and effort later.
A good Occupational Health company will work with both the employer and the employee
to establish the best course of action to obtain a sustained return to work.