As a student, you are required to complete an occupational health questionnaire in order to commence your studies please complete this as soon as you can. When occupational health receives your completed questionnaire they will review your responses and contact you if they need further information or to offer you an appointment. It is important that you co-operate with this process so that there are no delays to commencing your studies.

Occupational Health - Undergraduate Programmes

If you are applying to study any of the following healthcare related programmes you will be provided with a health questionnaire which you must complete to the best of your knowledge and send directly to Occupational Health (address details are provided on the form):

• Medicine
• Dentistry
• Nursing
• Midwifery
• Physiotherapy
• Nutrition
• Dietetics
• Pharmacy

When Occupational Health receives your form they will review the information you have provided and then contact you to arrange an appointment. It is important that you co-operate with this process in a timely manner so that there are no delays to commencing your studies.

The purpose of this health assessment process to is to check that you are fit to undertake the programme for which you have applied and to meet the regulatory requirements that apply to Healthcare Workers. Our occupational health providers refer to the HEOPS (Higher Education Occupational Physicians/Practitioners) guidance on fitness to study but will always look at each prospective student individually in the context of the programme he/she wishes to study. If you have any concerns regarding your fitness to study you should first contact the university's admissions team.

Taught postgraduate taught programmes and PGCE/Schools Direct students

Taught postgraduate students (MRes, MSc, PGDip, PGCert etc) whose studies will involve any of the following will receive an email invite from the Occupational Health COHORT system. Please login using the details in the email and answer the questions to the best of your knowledge. If you have documentary evidence of vaccinations or blood tests you will be able to upload this to COHORT before submitting your form.

• PGCE/Schools Direct, PGDip Nursing, PGDip Midwifery
• Studies involving:
  • Clinical contact with patients
  • Work with human tissue products
  • Work with genetically modified organisms or pathogens (biological agents that are harmful to human health
  • Risk of exposure to environmental or human pathogens (eg water systems, soils etc)
  • Risk of exposure to respiratory sensitisers

For Nursing and PGCE/Schools Direct programmes our occupational health provider refers to the Higher Education Occupational Physicians/Practitioners guidance on fitness to study but will always look at each prospective student individually in the context of the university's programme.

Postgraduate Research Students

Applicants receiving an offer to study for MPhil / PhD or MD(Res) whose research activities have been identified as requiring Occupational Health pre-commencement assessment will receive an email invite from the Occupational Health COHORT system. Please login using the details in the email and answer the questions to the best of your knowledge.

You should refer to the latter half of the "Statutory Issues" section on page 4 of your Project Approval Form for an indication as to which section(s) of the questionnaire you should complete. If you have documentary evidence of vaccinations or blood tests you will be able to upload this to COHORT before submitting your questionnaire.

If you have not received an COHORT email invite please contact your Faculty Education Support Team.

Reporting incidents and injuries

Although you may be away from the university whilst you are on placement, elective or undertaking fieldwork we are still interested in your safety and welfare.

Should something happen to you whilst you are away we want to know about it so that your faculty can investigate to see whether lessons can be learned and measures can be taken to prevent it happening again.

Examples of incidents we need to know about are (this is not exhaustive):

• Body fluid exposures to students undertaking clinical or healthcare related activities
• aggression (physical or verbal)
• injury resulting from, for example, a slip, trip or fall, manual handling activity, faulty premises etc
• something went wrong and it was purely luck that you weren't hurt (what we would call a "near miss")
• you found yourself in a situation which felt unsafe or threatening (we would also class this as a near miss)

In addition to reporting to your host organisation (where relevant), please use the link below which will take you to the university's web-based reporting system which is hosted on our internal pages.

If you have any difficulties accessing the system to report your incident please contact the IT HelpDesk

Employment Health Assessment is the evaluation of the health and functional capabilities of the successful candidate in relation to the risks arising from the work/study activities and environment. Occupational Health (OH) will review information provided in a completed health questionnaire (and request an appointment where necessary) with information provided in the job description and advise HR accordingly.

Health & Capability Declaration

If you have successfully applied for a post at King's College London and have received an offer of appointment this will have been accompanied by a Health & Capability Declaration. The purpose of this form is to enable the College to identify in a timely manner persons with a health condition or disability who may benefit from accommodation measures. This form should be completed and returned to Human Resources as soon as practicable.

If you have declared a health condition or disability Human Resources will initiate an email invite from the web-based OH management system (COHORT) asking you to complete a confidential on-line health questionnaire. Please complete the sections that are relevant to your new post. Once you have completed and submitted the form OH will review the information you have provided and offer advice to the recruiting manager. Note, when completing the on-line health questionnaire you are able to upload a copy of your job description which will assist OH in their assessment and provision of advice.

Health Questionnaire

If you are going to be undertaking any of the work activities listed below Human Resources will initiate an email invite from the web-based OH management system (COHORT) asking you to complete a confidential on-line health questionnaire so that baseline health assessments and vaccinations (if recommended) can be identified and undertaken before you start work.Please complete those sections of the questionnaire that are relevant to you and your new post. Note, when completing the on-line health questionnaire, you are able to upload a copy of your job description - this will assist the Occupational Health practitioner in making an informed judgement and provide appropriate advice.

Examples of roles that require employment health assessment are:

• Clinical contact with patients
• Work with human tissue products
• Work with genetically modified organisms or biological agents that are harmful to human health
• Work involving risk of exposure to environmental or human pathogens (e.g work on foul water systems, soils etc.)
• Work involving risk of exposure to respiratory sensitisers
• Employed to drive vehicles on the highway
• Food handling and preparation
• Shift work and/or night work

If you have any questions about your Employment Health Assessment process please liaise with your HR contact (internal only). General queries about Employment Health Assessment can be sent to safety@kcl.ac.uk.

Optima Health

Customer Service Team:

• Telephone: 01327 810 777 (Monday-Friday, 08.00-17.00)
• Email: team2@optimahealth.co.uk

CareFirst line for out of hours advice

Contact if you have a contamination with blood or body fluids (such as a needlestick injury).

• Telephone 0800 413 324

Appointments will be delivered via telephone, online via Teams or in person. The location will be confirmed in your appointment details, so please check carefully.

In-person clinical appointments will be undertaken at:

• Optima Health
  344-354 Gray’s Inn Road
  London WC1X 8BP