Occupational Health Employer request-tell me I am not alone!

Hi all

I know I don’t often post but would like some advice if anyone has come across this.

I was diagnosed in 2005 - in a nutshell, partial mast/recon (9 hours op), no clear margins so mastectomy with implat a month later (6 hours), chemo/radio, frozen shoulder in between, 2 years Tamoxifen, changed to Arimidex, then Aromasin as side effects slightly less. Was sacked from job in 2006 (settled)… new job 2007.

I have struggled living with never feeling ‘quite right’ and when I got to the end of the tablet taking in December last year hoped I would gradually get to feel something like 100%.

I work in a doctor’s surgery and I know for the past few years I have had a lot of time off for what I suppose you would call ‘short term minor illness’… for instance, if a stomach bug is doing the rounds, I will get it and be laid up for a couple of days. Ditto a cold… it would lay me flat. I also used to suffer with migraine, though with no obvious trigger other than more likely if I was stressed, and these are happening far more often.

Frankly I have never felt my immune system was back to it’s old self, but was something I tolerated. I also guess that working in a surgery makes me more prone to picking up stuff that the average Joe! I have been hoping that as the meds get out of my system, my sleep will be better along with my appetite etc and I would get to something like I was before. It is very slow…when I finished the tablets in December my Onc said it could take a considerable time to get out of the system.

Anyhow… the upshot is, my boss has asked me for permission to contact my GP for an Occupational Health report because of the amount of sick leave I have had over the last couple of years for relatively minor stuff. It is NOT Occ Health involved, just my ‘employer’. I have no quarrel with the fact it has happened and no wish to refuse consent for them to ask for an opinion but the very nature of the ‘minor illness’ means I have had little or no contact with my GP - you don’t go to see your doc 'cos you have a tummy bug and you can’t get out of bed with a migraine!. So I don’t see what use it would be - in fact if I had any issue I spoke to the Onc.

I have 2 questions… has anyone else been in a similar situation work-wise?
Has as anyone else had a similar situation - to be honest, not so much the work situation, but this general feeling of ‘never feeling right’ andthat the immune system never got back to normal?

It feels wrong moaning about something so trivial, but I would like to know it isn’t me going totally bonkers!

Gosh that was a blooming waffle! xxx

Caz

Hi Caz

Not sure this helps but Employers can contact GP with permission to ask their opinion on your health.

I’ve never experienced this myself but in your position I’d go to see my GP first as they have probably done this type of report for others & could let you know what’s involved.

I’d also ask about your not feeling right; have you had any recent blood tests etc to check everything OK as possible it may identify something which is contributing to you not feeling right.

Take care
Lynne

Read through your employer’s health policy - it’ll prolly have all this procedure in there. It has been common for many years.
Several seemingly different illnesses in any calendar year will usually trigger a report requirement.

Your GP will usually make a charge for supplying the information. A quick visit to him/her to explain the situation and that the Oncy will have the details s/he needs should sort it.

Good luck.

I’ve just had an interview over the phone with our occy health so that they can prepare a report for my line manager for my return to work (it’s a bit late - I returned five weeks ago!) It’s standard for our HR dept. to request it following long term sick leave so I was expecting it.

During the course of that I was told that under some circumstances they could have asked my GP to prepare an occy health report but I got the impression that that would be done following a meeting/interview between me and my GP. Maybe that’s what will happen - you’ll go and speak to the GP so they can answer the questions that occy health need (it was definitely a fixed set of questions she was asking in my case) and then prepare the report.

You definitely need to be able to have your say.

Jane xxx

Thanks folks.

I have made an appointment to see my GP on Friday to let her know what is happening and you are right, she has probably come across this before. I have done a letter for work to say I have done this and that they can contact my GP after my appointment. As you say she can refer them to my Onc if necessary as I’m not sure she can help much one way or the other!

I haven’t had any blood tests as, frankly I have just carried on assuming it’s ‘the way it is’ as such, and to be honest don’t 'feel anything is worryingly wrong… just not right. Maybe it’s a bit of head in the sand, as I cannot deny the time off and think I have been blinded somewhat at the cummulative effect over time. I can say I have not wanted any more contact with docs that necessary and the irony is you wouldn’t go to a docs because you had a bout of D&V, or a cold or a migraine!

I would add there is no ‘Occ Health’ people involved at all - it’s just my employer wanting an opinion from my doc. They say its routine, but I admit that, after being sacked becaause of the BC before I am maybe paranoid that they are looking for an excuse to get rid…

Thanks again. Caz xxx

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hiya…do you work for the nhs itself? If you do, can give you a bit of an insight into the way they work the sickness thing. If you get 4 or more sickness in a year, they automatically refer you to occy health (been bounced there god knows how many times), you should have a copy of the request that your line manager sent to occy health, and occy health doc will go through the request with you…in a nutshell, it should be a general: is there anything we can do to help you out, what may or may not need to be changed within working environment, are you being put at unnecessary risk of bugs n lurgies. Its all in the sickness & absence policy that should be lurking around on the intranet. Hope that helps x

I know this is slightly different but when I wanted to start working part time through chemo my employer wanted to contact my Doc to make sure this was OK. I signed a formal consent form and restricted it specifically to this matter and did not give my GP as the contact but the consultant surgeon who operated on me. I spoke to her on the phone so she had an idea what to say and had a copy of the letter my Emp wrote and received a copy of her response BEFORE it was sent to my Emp for my approval.

I don’t think you have anything to worry about but you should do everything you can to protect yourself in this situation.

Good luck
DaisyGirl xx