Policy paper

Healthy Staff, Better Care for Patients: Realignment of Occupational Health Services to the NHS in England

A set of recommendations for realigning and further developing occupational health for the NHS.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Documents

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Details

This document gives a set of recommendations, developed with key stakeholders, to help achieve the vision that suppliers of occupational health services to healthcare staff should play a key role in the delivery of safe, effective and efficient patient care through promoting and protecting the health of staff.

To achieve this vision, this document outlines how existing services need to be realigned to:

  • provide services to prevent staff becoming ill or injured at work

  • actively promote health and well-being in the workplace 

  • maximise access to and retention of work through timely rehabilitation services.

To this end, proposals in three key areas, upon which work needs to be focussed in the initial stages:

  • Minimum service standards for occupational health services

  • Occupational health data collection and information sharing

  • Engagement of and with occupational health services

Working on the key areas to achieve the three realignment measures will help the NHS achieve significant progress toward achieving the £555 million productivity savings by 2013. 

The work outlined in this document will be taken forward into the implementation phase through work with key partners to ensure delivery of the ambitions.

NHS Health & Well-being Improvement Framework

Published 29 July 2011