Safety Critical Medicals – Are you covered?
Certain occupations can involve high-risk tasks that require an individual to have safety critical medicals. Individuals who work in these professions are often known as safety-critical workers.
It’s imperative that businesses ensure that employees in these positions are fit for the tasks they are undertaking. As such, they will need to undertake safety critical medicals.
Do your staff need safety critical medicals?
There are a number of jobs, especially in industries such as construction, waste and manufacturing, where workers are exposed to hazardous or potentially dangerous situations on a daily basis. We’ve already looked at the potential risks involved in the waste industry.
It’s important that safety-critical workers are not suffering from medical conditions or undergoing any medical treatment which is likely to cause sudden loss of consciousness or incapacity. Anything that might cause significant limitation of mobility or impair awareness, concentration, balance or coordination will have serious implications.
Types of roles that would require these medicals include:
- Working at height
- Fork lift truck drivers
- Working in confined spaces
- Roadside (high-speed) workers
- Plant operators
- Drivers and mechanical operators
- Construction workers
- Waste industry operational staff and drivers
Why are safety critical medicals important?
Ensuring that employees are fit for task and don’t have any medical or mental health issues which may impact on their performance is a vital part of maintaining safety in the workplace.
As an employer, you have a duty of care to ensure that your employees are safe to practice within the working environment. You must make sure that any underlying health conditions are taken into account and accommodations are made if required.
Safety critical medicals ensure that your company stays on the right side of current health and safety legislation and best practice. It’s a cost-effective and simple way to monitor the health of your workforce and can easily be carried out on-site by a qualified health practitioner.
What do safety critical medicals involve?
Safety critical medicals are likely to include a comprehensive medical questionnaire, urine analysis, lung and hearing function tests, as well as musculoskeletal, vision, and cardiovascular assessments.
These assessments should be completed on commencement of employment and reassessed on a regular basis to ensure safe working practices.
With the right occupational health surveillance procedures in place, you can be confident that your working environment is both safe and compliant to all relevant legislation. And by implementing regular safety critical medicals, you’ll know that the staff in your business are both physically and mentally fit for the job at hand.
If you’d like more information about how to implement your own safety critical medicals, get in touch with our specialist team today.
