NHS staff risk assessment advice

[Starshapeddreams]

Looking for some advice about how to get my pregnancy risk assessment done at work.

I'm a junior doc working in the NHS, currently 24 weeks pregnant. Trying to get a risk assessment done - Occupational health say it's not them but my clinic lead. Clinical lead has no idea about doing the form.
Any wise soul able to give me some advice about who to try next? I'm keen to get it done as from 28weeks I'd like at least modified duties.

Thanks
😊

It should be someone within your line manager structure. Maybe your clinical supervisor? Personally I’d look up the policy on the intranet print it out as the risk assessment should be part of this and then get someone to fill it out with you. Congrats 🎉 on the pregnancy

It should be on the trust intranet or contact HR - I had to do risk assessments at week 12,24 and 36. Have you applied for Mat leave yet?

Your line manager should do it, and they should have done one + been reviewing it regularly before now. As pp said there will probably be templates etc on your intranet. Occ health should be able to advise on their current guidance for when you hit 28 weeks - some trusts are insisting on you being non face to face, others aren't. You should have had a consultations with Occ health because of Covid as well. If you haven't ask your line manager to refer you.

It is your supervisors responsibility so if they don't feel able to, it's up to them to seek OH advice and come back to you.
I had my first risk Ax with my supervisor at 11 weeks, and plan to review it every 6-8 weeks

Definitely your line manager- if they don’t know how then it’s their duty to find out! I would contact the HR officer for your area and request they be involved.

I am 23 weeks and sent an email to my line manager last week so that my request was in writing. Also NHS and in a large hospital with increasing rates and an ITU with several pregnant women residing in it. Your trust should have a protocol of how to assess risk in pregnancy- mine requires either movement to a green area or work from home. If you can access your trust’s protocol then you can get an idea of what to expect.

Worst case scenario- involve your GP who should sign you off if you haven’t been risk assessed- and alert your union representative!

It don’t think it will be your clinical lead, but I’m surprised your clinical lead hasn’t been able to tell you who it is who does it (normally an operational manager of some kind, different trusts have different names for these positions).

Go back to HR and kick up a fuss until it’s done.

My line manager knew about my pregnancy from the word go (IVF pregnancy that they've been fully supportive of throughout) and they did the RA immediately. They've been reviewing it every 4 weeks since too. I'm in Scotland but the current rules here are that from 28 weeks pregnant staff can't be patient facing or even handle samples that might have been in contact with covid. I'd definitely get onto your line manager to get it done. Be mindful and check the COSHH assessments for any chemicals you might have to handle for your duties too - some could be teratogenic.