I have just received an application form for a job at child day nursery at local hospital NHS trust, the nursery is for the children of staff at the hospital, on looking at the Occupational Health form I have found the following questions…
Have you ever been exposed to radiation…I had radiotherapy so I guess thats a YES
Have you ever been exposed to anasethetic gases…Have had 4 op’s so I guess another YES
Haver you ever been exposed to any other hazards…Had chemotherapy…so is that another YES???
And from the other 38 questions of ''Have you ever suffered from any of the following ‘’ I answer YES to 11…!!
I know cancer paitents are covered by the Disability Act at work…but is there any point in continuing with the application form???////
I work as a Human Resource Manager for an NHS Board, (or at least I did lol when I could go to work) - I would agree with Marilyn - wherever you have to give a yes answer give a (brief) explanation.
The occupational health form should not be seen by the person interviewing/appointing you, (and inthe NHS almost certainly won’t be) so yes there is every reason to carry on filling in the form.
I also work in HR in the NHS and agree completely with Margaret and Marilyn. If you are successful, the occ health dept will almost certainly phone you and may want to meet you to discuss your health regarding any reasonable adjustments that may be necessary. But don’t worry about this.
Good luck with your application
Anne
It was good to read the positive advice on this thread, my first reaction on reading your post was, ‘well what a way to ask someone if they have had any illness’s in the past 12 months as common on other forms I have seen!’
Thanks for posting this Karen it is something i have thought a lot about as some day i am sure i will get fed up of agency work and see just the job i want. I know with the city council jobs they have a few questions about health issues and i would not beable to apply without declaring that i have had a serious illness.
I would like to know more about this because surely its discriminating against us if we apply and have to put our medical history.
My husband is a manager in social services and interviews alot. He had to admit that given a person who had had cancer and one who hadnt and all things being equal it could colour his choice of who was best for the job.
I think it would be so much fairer if we didnt have to declare any health problems until after we are appointed.
Keep us posted in how you get on and if you apply i wish you luck, i know you have years of experience in childcare.
Rx
Liverbird,
I applied for position on-line, didn’t have to declare any health information other than if I had a disability…I was consequently offered an interview…when the letter came with interview date and time the forms requesting the health information were in envelope too, they were to be taken when attending interview…for the reasons you mention Liverbird I declined the interview…I probably should of attended to see the outcome…but if I didn’t get the position I would never find out if it was because of health or because I simply wasn’t suitable…I realise the point of the health questions could of also been to see, if, had I been offered the position, there were any adjustments in the work place needed to help me carry out my work.
Well, still going to carry on looking…maybe I should get out of childcare though as I’ve noticed this week that I’ve had a bit of aching on effected side from lifting very heavy toddlers…or may be its old age!!!lol
Just to comment on Liverbirds post - as I said earlier I work as a HR Manager. In this day and age, in any large (and certainly in any public) organisation - the person interviewing you and/or the person making the final decision regarding appointment should not have any knowledge of your medical history - other than information you may have offered during any interview process. They certainly shouldn’t have seen any of the information contained on the health questionnaire as this is given in confidence.
I am only too aware that in smaller private companies this is not the case - and am equally aware of how having the knowledge of someone’s past history could colour the judgement of the decision maker. I know how extremely ideallistic this sounds, but I would hope that any appointing manager would have the good sense to take on the person who can contribute the most to the position in terms of experience and knowledge. I realise they have to weight up reasonable adjustments where these are required - but again would hope that they could see the benefit of this - versus appointing the wrong person who needs no adjustments.
And as I’ve said - I realise that we aren’t living in a ideal world and that this isn’t always what happens - but I can only hope…and keep nagging my friends and colleague to adopt the same attitude…