NHS Health at Work June bulletin

/Board members/Shriti_PattaniDear Colleagues
 
I hope that you have had time to enjoy our warm weather.
 
At our recent Board meeting Richard Parr  from the Joint Health and Work unit presented their draft Occupational Health Policy. This stimulated much discussion. We will circulate the draft guidance when it is available for consultation. You will also get a chance to hear the presentation at the conference.
 
The Board also heard from Dr Ali Hastroudi in his role as Head of the National School including its remit and progress so far, particularly in relation to Specialist Registrar Training. Again you will hear more about this at the conference.
 
In April this year a meeting was held by NHSI to agree a core list of  vaccination/serology/screening with a view to understanding the streamlining projects that are successfully working in some regions and how this might be rolled out nationally . A core list has now been agreed and each member OH team has received a short survey. Please note there was an issue with the link for the survey so a revised link was sent to our main contacts by email on 4th June. The results for the survey are being fed back to NHSI and could affect the outcome of this national project so please do complete it.  
 
Finally a reminder to book your place at the conference!

Shriti Pattani
Network Chair

The next edition will be circulated on 3rd July 2019.


In this edition:

1. South Central vacancy on Network Board
2. Network conference – time to book your delegate place
3. Streamlining
4. Workplace health: long-term sickness absence and capability to work (Update)
5. FOHN inaugural conference
6. MoHaWK
7. Work and cancer
8. Council for Work and Health – Chair’s annual report
9. SOM conferences
10. Lungs at Work courses
11. NHS Employers update


1. Board vacancy for South Central area

We have a vacancy on the Network Board for a representative for the South Central area to replace Fiona Warren, who has been a Board member for 3 years.

The Board meets 3 times a year and the next meeting will be at the Network conference in September. There will be a teleconference meeting in January and a face-to-face meeting in May, generally in central London.

If you are interested in representing this region, further information and the application form is available here. For informal enquiries please contact Andrew Gilbey (Network Manager) on andrew.gilbey25@gmail.com or Shriti Pattani (Network Chair) on shritipattani@nhs.net.

2. Network conference – time to book your delegate place

Our AGM and annual Network conference will take place on Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th September at the Chesford Grange Conference Centre, Kenilworth, Warwickshire. The conference day programme has been approved for 4 CPD points and comprises:

  • The role of Occupational Health in the Long-Term Plan - Speaker from the Joint Health and Work Unit
  • Protecting and enhancing the mental health of doctors and nurses - Dr Marios Adamou, Consultant Psychiatrist
  • Upper Limb Disorders: A medico-legal stance - Ian Winspur: Orthopaedic consultant/upper limb surgeon
  • Case Study - MDT working in an NHS OH team – Lizzie Wood, Deputy OH Manager, Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
  • Case Study - The only the way is Essex - or is it? An STP case study– Sue Hillman, Associate Director of Occupational Health and Wellbeing, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • The Future of the OH Workforce - Dr Ali Hashtroudi, Clinical Director Guy’s & St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust; Head of the National School for Occupational Health

Network members have a free place for one of their OH team. This includes dinner and accommodation at the venue on 4th September and the conference on 5th September. Please complete the booking form to let us know who will be attending. Additional full places including dinner and accommodation can be booked at a cost of £295, or day places for just £150.

Non-members can also attend the day of the conference on 5th September. The cost for this is £295.

If you have any queries please contact admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk.

3. Streamlining

The NHS Health at Work Network has been working with NHS Improvement to standardise as far as possible the occupational health screening requirements for doctors in training. A brief survey was e-mailed out to the main OH lead in each service on 30 May 2019. Following an issue with the link, a revised version was sent out on 4th June, so please ensure that you use the correct link. It is a short but important survey, with a closing date of Friday 14 June. We only need one response per OH Service. If you haven’t received your e-mail with the survey link, please contact admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk.

4. Workplace health: long-term sickness absence and capability to work (update)

This draft guideline and its supporting evidence are now out for consultation with stakeholders and individuals.

The consultation page has all the information and documents you need to comment.

The consultation will close at 5pm on Friday 5th July 2019 and the guideline is due for publication on 20th November 2019.

5. Faculty of Occupational Health Nursing, Inaugural Annual Conference

Bookings are now open for this inaugural conference “Quality, Quality, Quality”, which will be held at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel on Monday 17th June, 2019.

The programme includes presentations on quality as it relates to professional development, fitness for work, health risk management, compliance and wellbeing.

The booking system has been designed to make the process quick and simple for participants.  FOHN membership can be organised alongside attendance at the conference, so non-members can make savings on the registration fee by taking up the members’ rate and adding the membership option.  For your convenience, a range of payment methods are available: cheque, bank transfer or card and payment must be made before the event. To book click here.

More information is available on the website, including the full programme and details of conference accommodation.

6. MoHaWK

The data collection period is mainly the month of June (some indicators have to be earlier so that you have blood test results back) so make sure you have considered what indicators you are going to measure for this round and how you are going to get your data. Data entry will open in July 2019.

New back pain indicators for Round 15 - Feedback has suggested that users would like us to expand the back pain audit section. So three new indicators have been added to this section for Round 15. See the briefing note attached for the Round.

7. Work and cancer

Macmillan has published the following guidance for healthcare professionals to support people with cancer at work.

  • Work Support Route Guide: Our Work Support Route Guides help ensure professionals feel prepared to talk about work with people living with cancer and signpost them to further sources of support. Different versions are available for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
  • Primary Care 10 Top Tops: Supporting patients with work: This one-sider provides ten useful tips to support primary care professionals to have conversations with their patients about work and cancer and to signpost them to further support.

8. Council for Work and Health – Chair’s annual report

Steve Boorman, Chair of the Council for Health at Work, has produced an annual report following their recent AGM. More information about the Council and its work can be found on their website.

9. SOM/FOM conference, 17-19th June, Bristol

The multi-disciplinary OH conference of the year is run jointly by SOM/FOM, held at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel.

Sessions cover mental health, MSK issues, travel medicine, vocational rehabilitation, men’s health, workplace noise, fitness to drive, pilot health, military OH, the mental health of doctors, the brain health of professional footballers and much more. Full details of the programme, venue and recommended accommodation are available on the OH 2019 website or you can book here.

10. Lungs at Work courses

The National Heart and Lung Institute is offering courses in Occupational Lung Disease, Lung Function Testing and Medical Statistics during the autumn. Full details can be found in the newsletter or via their website.

11. NHS Employers update

Health and wellbeing network events

You are invited to our free regional health and wellbeing network events. Join us to reflect on your organisation’s current health and wellbeing approach, develop practical skills to strengthen your strategy and catch up with health and wellbeing colleagues.  

The one day events will take place from 10am – 3pm at the following locations:

  • 2 July: Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, Preston
  • 10 September: University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London 
  • 1 October: Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Bridgwater
  • 29 October: Newmarket Racecourse, Suffolk
  • 13 November: Horizon, Leeds.

We would appreciate your views on the format of these events and the topics you'd like to hear about, so please share any ideas with us at healthandwellbeing@nhsemployers.org.

Places are limited so we encourage you to book your place soon to avoid dissapointment. 

Mental Health Awareness Week round up

Listen to Paul Farmer from Mind chat with NHS Employer’s Helen Bogan about how important mental health at work is, what we can do to support staff and top tips to promote good mental health.  

Read the People Management article from Sue Covill, Director of Development and Employment, NHS Employers on how employees, managers and organisations can help to tackle mental health at work.

Check out the People Management article from Jennifer Gardener, Assistant Director of Development and Employment, NHS Employers on the importance of bridging gaps in understanding to enable open conversations about our emotional health. 

Time to change has developed an activity pack to help plan local mental health awareness raising activities in the workplace. The activity pack has great ideas for you to use during mental health week and beyond.

Developed by Zero Suicide Alliance and supported by NHS Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, this free 20 minutes online training will enable you to support someone who is at risk of suicide and can be shared trust-wide.

Take a look at our other great resources to help support better mental wellbeing in the workplace:

Men’s Health Week - 10-16 June

Led by the Men’s Health Forum, Men's Health Week runs from 10 to 16 June and will raise awareness of preventable health issues with the focus this year on diabetes, and encourages men to seek professional advice for health-related problems. 

BNF Healthy Eating Week

British Nutritional Foundation (BNF) Healthy Eating Week will run from 10 to 14 June 2019 and registration is now open. It’s a week dedicated to encouraging organisations across the UK to focus on and celebrate healthy living.  

Take a look at NHS Employers' calendar of national health and wellbeing campaigns for more campaigns to help you plan your health and wellbeing strategy and activities.


The NHS Health at Work Network brings together all OH teams providing health and wellbeing services to NHS OH staff.  It is dedicated to providing consistent, high quality health at work services to all NHS staff through collaborative working.

Members of OH teams in NHS Health at Work Network member organisations can receive the bulletin and access the restricted areas of the website as a membership benefit – if you are not sure of your login details email admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk.

Please share this bulletin with colleagues and encourage them to register to receive it regularly.

Non-Network members can also register to receive the monthly bulletin.

You can contact the Network through your regional representative or as shown below. Please get in touch if you have any queries or comments, if there is anything you would like to see in future issues of the bulletin, or if you have news to share.

Dr Shriti Pattani, Chair shritipattani@nhs.net
Andrew Gilbey, Network Manager andrew.gilbey25@gmail.com
Wendy Coleman, Network Administrator admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk

Postal address: PO Box 642, BS23 9NG
Tel: 07584 269322