Making an occupational health referral: advice for managers

Occupational health aims to provide a balanced view that can stand up to scrutiny and challenge. Managers should provide sufficient detail on their referral forms to help occupational health advisers obtain that balanced view.

Seeking clarification

If you are unsure what the advice in an occupational health report means, occupational health will be pleased to provide an explanation.

If an occupational health report does not deal with a key issue or specifically answer a question, you should contact occupational health for further clarification.

In most cases, occupational health will be able to respond to these queries in the context of the consent that has already been provided for the report.

How occupational health advisers make assessments

Managers sometimes think that occupational health only accepts what employees say and does not challenge their perceptions. However, occupational health advisers independently assess situations by taking a detailed history including: 

• relevant health issues
• treatment
• day to day restrictions
• work issues

They may also conduct a clinical examination to determine functional capability.

It's essential to remember that there may be different views of the same situation. Occupational health telling the manager about the employee's perspective can support return to work efforts. The manager and employee can then discuss and try to resolve any differences of views.