2 August 2021

Occupational health made simple: a step-by-step guide

Put simply – occupational health is your health in the workplace. If a physical or mental health problem is affecting you at work, you can use Racing’s Occupational Health service to receive guidance on returning to work, adjustments in the workplace or treatment through health professionals.

According to the NHS, there is significant evidence to show that work is good for health and that work can have a beneficial impact on recovery from health problems.

Below we have set out a step-by-step guide to help you know what to expect.

A step-by-step guide to your occupational health journey

1. Referral

You can contact us via Racings Support Line on 0800 6300 433 or make an online referral for yourself or an employee here.

Please provide as much detail as possible in the referral, including your job role and any previous absence history. This helps to ensure that our Occupational Health Practitioners have all the background information to hand at the consultation and enables the clinician to balance your needs with the needs of your employer.

2. Making an appointment

In order to ensure that we arrange an appointment date and time that is suitable for you, our administration team will normally contact you to ensure we can agree a mutually convenient date and time. Calls will come from an 01327 number. If we are unable to contact you our welfare team will try and contact you to ensure you would like your referral to go ahead.

Once the appointment is made it will usually be confirmed to you by email, you will also get text message reminders. You will be provided with the details of the date and time of your appointment.

If, for any reason, you are unable to attend your appointment please call your Welfare Officer as soon as possible to rearrange your appointment. Please ensure that you have organised a quiet and comfortable location for the date and time of the appointment. This will allow a confidential discussion.

3. Your Occupational Health appointment

During the appointment the clinician will guide you through the assessment, keeping the focus on the impact of work on your health.

The clinician will directly discuss the specific questions that you may have asked on your referral.

At the end of the consultation the clinician will summarise the content of the report that will be written. At this point you should raise any errors, misunderstandings or corrections so they can be discussed with the clinician ensuring the report is as accurate as possible.

The clinician will finally ask your consent to release the report to Racing Welfare, this means that any onward referrals for treatment can be actioned. The appointment will take approximately 30 minutes.

4. The report

The report will be a summary of what the clinician regards as important for you to be healthy at work or to return to work.

Final Step

Once you receive the report, we would encourage you to discuss this with your employer. There may be information or advice to support you in the workplace or aid your return to work if you are off work.