đź’‰ Occupational Health Check

Summary

đź’ˇ
Agencies need to collect information about your health and the vaccinations you've had to ensure you can pass a Fitness To Work assessment. They will send you an Occupational Health screening questionnaire, and ask you to provide evidence of immunisations and blood tests.

Key Information

👉 Occupational Health Questionnaire

You'll be sent a login to an Occupational Health portal. Most agencies use a company called Healthier Business for this.

Once you've logged in, you will be asked to fill in a questionnaire with information about your health history, recent travel and any occupational health risks.

👉 Evidence of Immunisations

You will need to upload evidence of the following immunisations to the Occupational Health portal:

  • Hepatitis B full course
  • BCG - usually evidence of a scar sighted by a UK GP will suffice, or it may be written on your record
  • MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) x 2
  • Varicella - GP written history of chickenpox may be sufficient
  • DTP (Diphtheria, Tetanus, Polio)
  • COVID-19 Vaccine (not in all cases)

👉 Evidence of Blood Tests (also called Serology)

You will need to upload evidence of the following immunisations to the Occupational Health portal. These must be “Identified Verified Samples”, where your ID has been checked when the test was done.

  • HIV 1&2
  • Hepatitis B surface antigen
  • Hepatitis B surface antibody level >100
  • Hepatitis C antibody

This may seem daunting, but most UK-based doctors will have this same check done at the start of F1 and so should have most of the relevant evidence to hand from then.

Once the agency's Occupation Health team have verified all documents, you will be issued with a Fitness To Work certificate.

Common Questions

I don't have copies of all of these, what do I do?

If you can’t find any of the above, contact your Trust’s Occupational Health team ASAP to ask for copies. You may need to attend in person to collect some, others may be emailed.

Do this in good time as it can take a while for them to get back to you. Some may reply within a few days, others can take a few weeks. Feel free to chase them up if you haven't heard back.

If any are missing, and your GP can’t fill the gaps either, the locum agency will need you to get the tests performed again. These are usually free with your GP, or they can refer you to a private centre to have this done quickly, which is paid for.

I had some of these overseas, is that an issue?

If you have had tests / immunisations overseas, these may not be accepted and you may need to get them repeated in the UK. Flag this to your locum agency. ‍

Do I need to do this for each agency? Can't I just do it once?

Each locum agency has their own process, and their own portals and forms so you will have to repeat this process for each unfortunately.

Action Steps

Complete the Occupation Health screening questionnaire sent to you by the agency
Collate your immunisation and blood test records, and upload these
If any are missing, contact your Trust’s Occupational Health team and/or GP to get these sent to you