Occupational Health

At Mediclinic, occupational health is a medical service for people at work and for the employers who arrange their care. Our work centres on preventing harm at work and helping you recover when you're unwell. Because it's a medical service, not an HR process, whatever you tell our clinicians stays confidential.

What is occupational health?

Occupational health is the branch of medicine that deals with the two-way link between health and work. It looks at how a job can affect your health, and how a health condition can affect your work. It assesses whether you're fit for a role and helps protect you from hazards such as noise, dust and chemicals. It also helps people who are unwell return to work, or stay while they recover. Unlike family medicine, its focus is always the workplace.

Who is occupational health for?

It's usually arranged through your employer. You might be seen:

• Before you start a new job or role
• At regular intervals while you are in a role with health risks
• After an illness, injury or time off work
• When a health problem is affecting your work
• When your work may be affecting your health

Some appointments are routine, like a pre-employment medical or a regular check for a role with known risks. These regular checks can pick up early signs of harm from the work, so problems are caught before they grow. Your employer usually arranges the appointment, though many services also let you ask to be seen yourself. We can advise employers too, so risks in the workplace are managed before they cause harm. If a new health problem is your main worry, your family doctor is the right first stop, and can involve occupational health where work is part of the picture.

What to expect

At an occupational health appointment, a nurse or doctor asks about your health, your job and any concerns on either side. The conversation goes both ways, so you can raise anything about the job that's worrying you. Depending on the role, you might have a general health check, a hearing test or a lung-function test, or give a sample. The clinician is looking at how your health and your work fit together.

Afterwards, the clinician gives an opinion on your fitness for the work, and may suggest adjustments, such as different duties or a phased return. Your clinical details stay in a confidential medical record. With your consent, your employer receives advice on what you can do and any adjustments to consider, not the medical detail behind it. The clinician then explains the outcome, and you'll agree the next step together.

Occupational Health at Mediclinic

At Mediclinic, our occupational health teams work with people at work and with the employers who arrange their care. We give workplace vaccinations and general health checks, and we advise on ways to prevent illness and injury on the job. You'll find us across our UAE hospitals and clinics. We also see the everyday problems that work can bring, from hearing and vision to the strains of repetitive tasks. If you're recovering, our physiotherapy and rehabilitation teams help you get back to work safely. Throughout, what you share stays in a confidential medical record, and your employer hears about your fitness for work, not the detail behind it.