Asthma and vonij

[RichardWk]

Should those with Asthma still be going to work and are NHS nurses in the vulnerable group being taken off nursing duties.

[GFloss]

It depends on the severity of your asthma. If you're considered to have severe asthma then you fall into the shielding group and should stay home for the full 3 months. If your asthma is milder, then it's the case that you're in the strict social distancing group, in which case it's recommended you stay home as much as poss and only go out to work if it's considered essential. It's outlined here on Asthma UK (they regularly update this page to stay up-to-date with the latest advice): asthma.org.uk/advice/trigge... You'll see there are a number of healthcare workers with asthma who've commented on this forum that they are still working, but I don't know if any of these fall into the most vulnerable/shielding group.

[Poobah]

This is a difficult one as hospital or a GP surgery, as a workplace, is going to have more exposure to Covid-19 and therefore anyone who has respiratory illness should be protected from that environment. At the same time they are desperate for staff to be present at work.

It always puzzles me that an employer that specialises in health care can be so slow to extend enough protection to its own staff.

Any staff member who has a pre existing condition should be offered an occupational health review within the workplace, taking into account their illness and the current risks of Covid-19. The review is undertaken by a trained occupational health practitioner. The review will identify the risks and the steps the employer should take to minimise the risks. These are called reasonable adjustments.

There's a legal requirement for the employer to protect staff covered by the Equality Act 2010. Asthma is considered to be a disability for the purposes of the Act; disability is a protected characteristic under the Act.

Reasonable adjustments can extend to a change in duties in order to achieve strict social distancing. Or it could extend to paid leave. It will be for the occ health reviewer to decide.

Hope this helps.

[Jimmy-Lyden in reply to Poobah]

This is all well & good but you'd be surprised at the amount of employers who treat the equalities act as "advisory", including the company who use red vans all over the country.

[Poobah in reply to Jimmy-Lyden]

Tell me about it. I used to be a H&S union rep and had my work cut out trying to get the employer to meet their minimal legal requirements. The first hurdle was getting the manager to submit a referral to the occupational health service. Their resistance could have been classed as an Olympic sport. It really takes petsistence and if the employee can get support from their union H&S rep, all the better.

And the great thing about H&S reps is you don't have to be a union member to avail of their service.

[Jimmy-Lyden in reply to Poobah]

Dreadful, but it's nice to know I'm not alone (?). I eventually got referred to our outsourced OH run by ATOS. They phoned me at home and after around the 16 minute mark of me basically speaking non-stop, they agreed. I qualified under the EA. I was then offered a face to face meeting in order to get off shift work. Over 2 years later I got this meeting (the usual, HR thought the case was closed until I referenced them a letter 2 months after their date of closure, then e-mails went missing, managers assumed it had happened etc). By this time OH was being handled by Capita. I went along only to find out I'd gotten the wrong referral and as such she couldn't do the one I thought I was getting. We had a chat and that's when I found out that Capita don't think that Asthma qualifies under the EA. I was quite elated at this and said so. She was a bit puzzled by this until she explained, No, there isn't a cure for asthma on the horizon.. which then left me puzzled. According to Capita, if it isn't expressly mentioned in the Equalities Act, then it doesn't qualify. At this point I had to leave.

As for union reps... every time I ask to speak to one of them they suggest we go outside, away from the other reps (being a private matter). Once outside you can guess what is the first thing they do. I now refuse to go outside for "privacy" with the clowns.

[Poobah in reply to Jimmy-Lyden]

I can't comment on other reps, but my branch worked really hard for our members. A good H&S rep is worth their weight in gold.

Severe asthma is a disability as it is a continuous and incurable disease. Asthma UK states this on their website. Not all illnesses are mentioned in the EA so Capita are having a laugh when they say it's not a disability if it's not in the Act.

We had Capita too and had a great OH nurse who visited the workplace. But it all went downhill when they went to telephone consultations and we had a mixture of OH people. At that stage reps had to work hard with them, as well as the employer, to get the right outcome.

Your case sounds like an early error made the whole process ineffective. The process is only as good as the first referral.

So sorry you had such a bad experience.

[Jimmy-Lyden in reply to Poobah]

Thanks... Most of our reps smoke, so they haven't a clue about asthma and think you're being a bit awkward when you refuse to go outside. As for the Capita nurse I saw face to face? She'd been in nursing for 18 years and doing Capita referrals for almost 5. I should have asked where she did her nursing.

I'm sure we'll have many conversations about this, but you seem to have a pretty good bunch behind you, unlike Royal Mail.

Take care and have a good week!