GP surgeries to host work advisers

Employment advisers are to be placed in doctors' surgeries, as part of the government's strategy for rehabilitating workers following periods of illness.

The scheme, announced in chancellor Gordon Brown's pre-budget report, has been welcomed by the Sheffield Occupational Health Advisory Service (SOHAS).

Simon Pickvance from SOHAS said: "We are delighted to see employment health issues being given the recognition they deserve. Suitable advice is not always available to people who most need it."

Doctors' organisation the BMA gave the scheme a qualified welcome. Hamish Meldrum, chair of the BMA's general practitioners committee, said: "GPs will welcome practical measures to help their patients back to work where appropriate. However, the proposed pilots for employment advisers in surgeries will need to demonstrate that the problems currently experienced by many practices - such as lack of staff, money and space - can be resolved."

Meanwhile, a new Health and Safety Executive (HSE) research report has examined GPs' role in occupational health. The profile of patients' occupational health in primary care (RR254) found that: "Employers take insufficient responsibility for the health of their employees, and employers often transferred their responsibility onto an overstretched primary care service."

The report is available from HSE Books, price £15, or can be downloaded free of charge from www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr254.pdf