Review

Working advice in practice

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH MATTERS IN GENERAL PRACTICE
Chambers R, Moore S, Parker G, Slovak A
Radcliffe Medical Press, 2001, £18.95

Each week 4 per cent of people (one million) are sick and off work in England, of whom 17,000 remain signed off at six weeks. For most of the 3,000 still certificated at six months there is an increased likelihood of never working again – only 300 of these return to work. Most of the remainder end up on long-term incapacity benefit, with around 60 per cent suffering from musculoskeletal conditions, mental illness or circulatory disorders.

This is a matter of concern not only for government but also for GPs, as those working in general practice are often the first point of contact for work-related problems. However, because this is likely to be a small proportion of a GP workload, health care professionals in primary care often have limited training and experience in occupational health care.

The target audience for this book are the primary care team: practice nurses, practice managers and GPs, and the information in the book addresses the issues of GPs as employers, as well as their role as medical advisers.

Given the limited exposure of some primary health care professionals to the complex occupational health agenda, this book provides a useful source of information. Occupational health includes being pro-active in promoting health and protecting the worker against occupationally acquired illness, as well as reacting to medical or environmental problems as they arise.

All the necessary ingredients are present: information on the occupational health service, legal issues, ethical and patient confidentiality issues, processes of investigation for occupational health conditions, specific regulations relevant to the health care professional’s own place of work, and case studies as illustrative examples.

Each chapter concludes with a series of interactive exercises to help the reader consolidate and apply the material. Two further chapters provide templates for a personal development plan or a practice performance and professional development plan, with worked examples of each.

An innovative addition to the book is that the text is linked to a distance-learning programme at Staffordshire University and provides for postgraduate education accreditation for GPs by the National Accreditation Panel of up to 40 hours.

As an introductory and informative reference on occupational health matters in general practice, with provision of optional formal training, this would be a useful addition to most general practice libraries.