Prevention Advisor-occupational physician

In their professional practice, the Prevention Advisor-occupational physician very often has to deal with workers whose health has changed following exposure to psychosocial risks at work.

The tasks of the Prevention Advisor-occupational physician in relation to these risks are:

• to consider these risks in the course of various medical examinations.
• at least once a year, they must provide the employer and the Prevention Advisor for psychosocial aspects with all the useful information from the medical examinations and visits to the workplace, in the form of aggregated anonymous data. This information must be provided so that the employer can evaluate the collective preventive measures taken in the context of the prevention of psychosocial risks within the company and adapt them if necessary.
• if the occupational physician observes that the health of a worker has changed due to exposure to psychosocial risks at work, they must inform this worker that they can contact the Prevention Advisor for psychosocial aspects or the confidential counsellor. The doctor can also contact the Prevention Advisor for psychosocial aspects if they believe that the worker is not in a position to do so, with their written agreement.

In relation to the transmission of information between the parties involved, the legislation states that:

• The Prevention Advisor-occupational physician may exchange information regarding a worker with the Prevention Advisor for psychosocial aspects or the confidential counsellor. However, this exchange must be in the interests of the worker and with their written agreement. Without this written agreement, the Prevention Advisor-occupational physician must directly contact the examined worker to find out if they have been in touch with a Prevention Advisor for psychosocial aspects or the confidential counsellor. The Prevention Advisor-occupational physician does not have automatic access to the identity of workers who have submitted a formal or informal request for psychosocial intervention.
• With the written agreement of the worker, the occupational physician will work with the Prevention Advisor for psychosocial aspects on the possibilities of other work and ways of adapting the workstations if they observe that the health of the worker has changed due to exposure to psychosocial risks at work.
• With the written agreement of the worker, they request the written advice of the Prevention Advisor for psychosocial aspects if the worker has submitted a formal request for psychosocial invention, prior to the medical examinations.