Health and Work Development Unit to close

Both the Royal College of Physicians and the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, as partners in the HWDU, are incredibly disappointed by the need to close the unit, but it has become impossible to sustain both the unit’s and the programme’s work in the current financial climate. For over a year the RCP has been supporting the unit with the shortfall.

The unit leaves a legacy of improvement to health at work: a series of clinical guidelines relevant to health and work; greater implementation of NICE public health workplace guidance in the NHS achieved through its national organisational audit and implementation workshops, and improvements in occupational health clinical care achieved through its programme of national clinical audits.

NQIP Occupational Health audit

• Organisations taking part in the NQIP OH audit will receive a full-refund, and will have access to the webtool for data entry and reporting. The HWDU will produce reports for any organisations submitting data by 31 July, and the RCP has waived copyright on the audit tools to enable organisations to complete their audit cycle locally if they wish.
• The HWDU office is open now as usual, and will remain open after 31 July so a member of the team will be able to answer queries as usual.
• The drive for quality improvement will continue, with the Royal College of Physicians’ work on staff health through its Future Hospital Programme, and the Faculty of Occupational Medicine’s on-going focus on standards through its accreditation scheme for occupational health services, SEQOHS.

Dr Siân Williams, clinical director of the Health and Work Development Unit, said:

While I am deeply saddened by the closure of the unit, I believe that our work has made a difference to the way we look at health in the workplace, and would like to thank everyone who has worked with us over the past seven years for their enthusiasm for, and active participation in, OH clinical quality improvement. We sincerely hope that in the future clinical audit for occupational health can be offered at a national level again.

For further information, please contact Hannah Bristow, Clinical Standards communications officer, on 020 3075 1447 / 07584 303 784 or email Hannah.Bristow@rcplondon.ac.uk