Fitness for Work

The Medical Aspects

Sixth Edition

Edited by John Hobson and Julia Smedley

Fitness for Work provides practical advice that complies with employment law as well as health and safety regulations to be used by occupational health practitioners on a daily basis.
An evidenced based resource, the clinical chapters in Fitness for Work are co-authored by a clinical specialist and an occupational physician.
With a review of current research, it provides advice on fitness for work in the context of our changing society, including the older worker.
Contains links to additional resources, including useful addresses, contact details, and further reading.
Provides comprehensive coverage of occupational health issues, organized by medical condition for ease of reference.

New to this Edition:

All chapters have been updated to reflect recent clinical advances, research evidence and guidelines.

Fitness for Work

The Medical Aspects

Sixth Edition

Edited by John Hobson and Julia Smedley

Description

The 'bible' of occupational health, Fitness for Work is the most in-depth and comprehensive resource available on the relationship between ill health and employment. The specialist advice given covers health hazards in the work place, fitness for work, and rehabilitation after illness or injury. A truly current source, it discusses the social aspects of work, and problems associated with our ageing workforce and changing population.

Communicating occupational health advice to patients, employees, and doctors, Fitness for Work improves relationships in the workplace. It details the impact of a patient's health on work, and how they can be supported to gain or remain in employment. This invaluable source argues that in a suitable role, an employee can derive immense benefits to their health and well-being from work. Importantly, this comprehensive title also presents tactics on how to reduce inappropriate barriers to work for those who have overcome an injury or disease, and those who live with chronic conditions.

Fully revised and updated, the sixth edition of Fitness for Work is based on the latest research evidence and clinical advances. The first half of the book focuses on the general principles of fitness to work and occupational health practice, such as legal aspects, ethical principles, health promotion, health surveillance and general principles of rehabilitation. In addition, it advises on sickness absence, ill health retirement, medication, transport, vibration and travel.

In the second half of the book, chapters are arranged by clinical speciality or topic, and are co-authored by a topic specialist and a specialist occupational physician providing a comprehensive view of the subject. For effortless reference, each specialty chapter outlines the conditions covered, their prevalence and impact, and discusses the clinical aspects and treatment that affects work capacity. All recommendations are evidence-based and make use of the NICE guidelines.

The definitive text on the relationship between health and work, Fitness for Work delivers a wealth of valuable consensus guidance, codes of practice, and locally evolved standards. This highly-regarded resource is essential for all occupational health practitioners.

Fitness for Work

The Medical Aspects

Sixth Edition

Edited by John Hobson and Julia Smedley

Section 1
1. A general framework for assessing fitness for work, John Hobson and Julia Smedley
2. Legal aspects of fitness for work, Gillian S. Howard
3. The Equality Act, Mark Landon and Tony Williams
4. Ethics in occupational health, Steve Boorman and Diana Kloss
5. Health promotion in the workplace, Steve Boorman
6. Health screening in occupational health, David Koh and Tar-Ching Aw
7. The older worker, Steven Nimmo
8. Women s Health and other Gender issues at work, Blandina Blackburn and Patrick Bose
9. Sickness absence, Richard Preece
10. Rehabilitation and return to work, Danny Wong
11. Fitness for work after surgery or critical illness, Tony Williams and Neil Pearce
12. Ill health retirement, Jon Poole and Glyn R. Evans
13. Medication and employment, Caroline Swales and Peter McDowall
14. Drugs and alcohol in the workplace, David Brown and David Rhinds
15. Transport, Tim Carter, Rae-Wen Chang, Andrew Colvin, Robbert Hermanns
16. Seafaring, offshore energy and diving, Tim Carter, Sally Bell, Mike Doig, Robbert Hermanns, Phil Bryson
17. International Travel, Dipti Patel
18. Health effects of vibration, Ian Lawson and Roger Cooke
Section 2
19. Mental health and psychiatric disorders, Richard J.L. Heron and Neil Greenberg
20. Musculoskeletal conditions, Part 1: Rheumatological disorders, Syed Nasir and Karen Walker-Bone
21. Musculoskeletal conditions, Part 2: Spinal disorders, Birender Balain, John Hobson
22. Musculoskeletal conditions, Part 3: disorders of upper and lower limbs, Sam Valanejad Julia Blackburn Karen Walker-Bone
23. Epilepsy, Ian Brown and Martin C. Prevett
24. Other Neurological disorders, Jon Poole and Richard Hardie
25. Diabetes mellitus and other endocrine disorders, Ali Hashtroudi and Mayank Patel
26. Cardiovascular Diseases, Joseph De Bono and Anli Yue Zhou
27. Respiratory disorders, Paul Cullinan and Kaveh Asanati
28. Dermatological disorders, John English and Dr Hanaa Sayed
29. Cancer survivorship and work, Philip Wynn and Elizabeth Murphy
30. Vision and eye disorders, John Pitts and Stuart J. Mitchell
31. Hearing and vestibular disorders, Julian Eyears and Kristian Hutson
32. Hidden impairments, Marios Adamou and John Hobson
33. Gastrointestinal and liver disorders, Ira Madan and Simon Hellier
34. Blood borne viruses, Paul Grime and Christopher Conlon
35. Haematological disorders, Julia Smedley and Richard S. Kaczmarski
36. Renal and urological disease, Christopher W. Ide and Edwina A. Brown

Fitness for Work

The Medical Aspects

Sixth Edition

Edited by John Hobson and Julia Smedley

Author Information

John Hobson, onorary Senior Lecturer, Institute of Clinical Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK; Julia Smedley, Consultant Occupational Physician and Head of Occupational Health; and Honorary Senior Lecturer, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust; and University of Southampton

John Hobson is a practising consultant occupational physician. He is also managing director of Hobson Health Ltd. He has been the honorary editor of the journal Occupational Medicine for over fifteen years. He holds academic appointments in occupational medicine at Keele, Manchester and Birmingham universities.

Julia Smedley is an occupational physician, leading a large multidisciplinary OH service in the NHS. She has an active interest in research and innovation, service development and quality improvement and has contributed to national guidelines and audits in the specialty. She is an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Southampton.

Contributors:

John Hobson, Managing Director, Hobson Health, UK
Gillian S. Howard, Employment Laywer, UK
Mark Landon, Partner, Employment, Pensions and Immigration Team, Weightmans LLP, UK
Steve Boorman, Corporate Social Respon., and Chief Medical Advisor, Royal Mail Group, Unit 6, UK
David Koh, Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Steven Nimmo, General Practitioner, Barton Surgery, UK
Blandina Blackburn, Consultant Occuptional Physician, NHS, UK
Richard Preece, Executive Lead for Quality of the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, Manchester, UK
Danny Wong, Senior Consultant Occupational Physician, Occupational Health Department , North Tyneside General Hospital, UK
Tony Williams Consultant, Occupational Physician, and Medical Director, Working Fit Ltd., UK
Jon Poole, Consultant Occupational Physician, Department of Occupational Health, Health Centre
Caroline Swales, Consultant Occupational Physician, NHS Morecambe Bay University Hospitals Trust, UK
David Brown, General Practitioner, Normanton's King's Medical Practice, UK
Tim Carter, Teaching and Research Associate, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, Unversiy of Nottingham, UK
Tim Carter, Teaching and Research Associate, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, Unversiy of Nottingham, UK
Dipti Patel, BBC Occupational Health, White City, UK
Ian Lawson, Chief Medical Officer, Rolls-Royce PLC
Richard J.L. Heron, Vice President Health, BP International, UK
Syed Nasir, Consultant, UK
Birender Balain, Consultant Spinal Surgeon, Spire Healthcare, UK
Sam Valanejad, Consultant Specialist in Occupational Medicine, UK
Jon Poole, Consultant Occupational Physician, Department of Occupational Health, Health Centre
Ian Brown, Director of Occupational Health Services, Occupational Health Services, University of Oxford, UK
Ali Hashtroudi, Clinical Director at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Joseph De Bono, Cardiologist, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust, UK
Paul Cullinan, Professor in Occupational and Environmental Respiratory Disease, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, UK
John English, Consultant Dermatologist, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK
Philip Wynn, Occupational Health Service, Durham County Council, UK
John Pitts, Consultant Ophthalmologist to the Civil Aviation Authority, UK
Julian Eyears, Consultant Specialist in Occupational Medicine, MFOM, UK
Marios Adamou, Consultant Psychiatrist, South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Ira Madan, Reader in Occupational Health, Kings College London, UK
Paul Grime, Director, Occupational Health Unit, Royal Free Hospital, UK
Julia Smedley, Consultant in Occupational medicine, Occupational Health, Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, Southampton General Hospital, UK
Christopher W. Ide, Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, Healthy Working Lives Group, University of Glasgow; and Consultant Physician in Occupational Medicine, Health Management Ltd. Altrincham, UK
Julia Smedley Consultant in Occupational medicine, Occupational Health, Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, Southampton General Hospital, UK
Tony Williams, Consultant Occupational Physician, and Medical Director, Working Fit Ltd., UK
Diana Kloss, Honorary President at Council for Work and Health, UK
Tar-Ching Aw, Professor of Occupational Medicine and Chair, Department of Community Medicine, United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates
Patrick Bose, Obstetric Consultant, The Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, London Road, Reading RG1 5AN, UK
Neil Pearce, Gastrointestinal surgeon, Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, Southampton General Hospital, UK
Glyn R. Evans, Director, London Knee Clinic, UK
Peter McDowall, Consultant Physician, Deputy Medical Director and Clinical IT Lead, University Hospital Southampton, UK; and Associate Medical Director for MRCP Written Examinations, UK; and Senior Medical Advisor to the British National Formulary, UK.
David Rhinds, Consultant Psychiatrist in Substance Misuse; and Clinical Stream Lead SMS, UK
Rae-Wen Chang, Chief Medical Officer, Occupational & Aviation Medicine, NATS Aeromedical Centre, UK
Sally Bell, Maritime Health, UK
Roger Cooke, General Practicioner, Whitbourn, UK
Neil Greenberg, Professor of Defence Mental Health, Kings College London, UK
Karen Walker-Bone, Professor, University of Southampton MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit,
Southampton General Hospital, UK
Julia Blackburn, Research Associate, University of Bristol, UK
Richard Hardie, Consultant Neurologist, Frenchay Hospital, UK
Martin C. Prevett, Consultant Neurologist, Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, Southampton General Hospital, UK
Mayank Patel, Consultant Physician, Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, Southampton General Hospital, UK
Anli Yue Zhou, Postgraduate Student, The University of Manchester, UK
Kaveh Asanati, Consultant Occupational Physician, and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, UK
Hanaa Sayed, Consultant, and Clinical Lead, Occupational Health and Wellbeing Services, Luton and Dunstable University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Elizabeth Murphy, Head Colorectal Surgical Unit Adelaide, Australia
Stuart J. Mitchell, President/CEO of PathStone Corporation, UK
Kristian Hutson, Occupational Medicine, UK
Simon Hellier, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Gloucester Royal Hospital, UK
Christopher Conlon, Reader in Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford; and Consultant in Infectious Diseases Nuffield Department of Medicine John Radcliffe Hospital Oxford, UK
Richard S. Kaczmarski, Consultant Haematologist, Hillingdon Hospital NHS Trust, The Hillingdon Hospital, UK
Edwina A. Brown, Consultant Nephrologist, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK
Andrew Colvin Consultant Occupational Physician - ?OHAssist Limited, UK
Mike Doig, Regional Medical Director, Chevron Corporation, Health & Medical Services, UK
Phil Bryson, Medical Director of Diving Services, Abermed Intl, UK

Fitness for Work

The Medical Aspects

Sixth Edition

Edited by John Hobson and Julia Smedley

Reviews and Awards

"The book fulfils its aim of informing professionals who advise on workability, so that people of working age can derive the benefits to their health and well-being from work. It truly deserves the description 'the bible of occupational health', as well as a place in every occupational health clinic and library." -- Anna Trakoli, Occupational Medicine

"This edition is a wonderful summary of a complex, important topic." -- John T. Pierce, MBBS(MD) PhD, Doodys