Latest WellWork News

August 2010

WellWork Newcastle Clinic extends opening hours  

As of the end of August the WellWork Newcastle clinic at Cowgate will be extending its opening hours to 5.30 p.m in the evening .

WellWork Travel Clinics open in Glasgow and Newcastle upon Tyne. 

Do your employees travel from the North East or Scotland abroad on business ?

In addition to looking after your employees health in the UK we can now provide specialist advice  and vaccinations for when they travel for work.

Specialist travel nurses and Physicians are now available to give bespoke individual advice to our customers with international presence.

 

Bookings can be made on 01324 718316 for Scotland and

0191 286 9927 for the North East.

Overweight employees more likely to take time off

Overweight employees take more time off from work for illness than staff who are within the healthy weight range, a new UK study has suggested
A study published in the Occupational Medicine Journal reported the results of the study that found workers classed as obese (those with a BMI above 30) took four more sick days per year on average than those of a healthy weight.
Obesity was found to increase the risk for both long-term (more than 10 days) and short-term absences.
The researchers say they hope that the findings may inspire employers to take action to encourage their employees to lose weight.
S Harvey and his colleagues analysed data from 625 London Underground staff. The workers either drove or controlled trains, and were required to undergo regular health check-ups.
Obese workers took an average of nine days off work per year while healthy weight individuals took off an average of five.
It might be that obese people are more susceptible to infections and take longer to recover from them,
The research team led by Samuel Harvey, a psychiatrist at King’s College London, said: “Employers are in quite a unique position to contribute to the public health message and interventions around obesity and trying to reduce levels of obesity.
“Our hope is that by demonstrating the economic cost to them of obesity amongst their workforce that that will help motivate employers to get involved in thinking about this problem.” 

May 2010

 

SEQOHS Standards update
 

SEQOHS – Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Service Accreditation is expected to be launched in December 2010 and currently the standards are 

voluntary. The scheme is currently in discussion with a number of accreditation companies about developing and managing a ‘bespoke accreditation scheme’ against the SEQOHS standards. 

WellWork is already working towards these standards and will apply for accreditation once details are announced in December. 

 

April 2010

WellWork approved for Maritime and Coastguard Agency Medicals
 

WellWork has been appointed as the provider for MCA ENG 1 medicals to 2 of its customers.  

This registration is for the whole of the customers company. Medicals will take place in Scotland and the South West. 

March 2010

WellWork Annual Conference

WellWork Ltd celebrated their 10th Anniversary this year. To celebrate all staff were invited to a conference, which was held at the Leeds Brittania Hotel. The purpose of this conference was to inform staff of WellWork's plans for the coming year - the theme of this years conference was concentrated on providing a quality service to WellWork customers. A number of staff members delivered a presentation on how WellWork could provide a better service to the customer. All staff agreed that the confernce had been a complete success !

New Fleet

WellWork Ltd have introduced a new fleet of company cars, WellWork now have a fleet of 20 vehicles, the vehicle of choice is the new Nissan Note, with these new cars we believe that we can continue to deliver a qulaity professional occupational health service to customers throughout the UK.

February 2010

Swine flu cases

The latest available figures show that:

• In England, the rate of GP consultations for flu like illness was 12.5 per 100,000 population for the week ending January 31 2010.   
• There were then 124 patients in hospital with swine flu in England, 29 of whom were in critical care.   
• The Health Protection Agency's overall estimate of the number of cases was below 5,000, where it had been for six weeks.   

Vaccination programme

By the end of January:

• The total estimated number of front-line health and social care workers vaccinated in England was 393,000.   
• The total number of vaccine doses administered to the priority groups in England was 4.25 million. This figure includes 140,000 pregnant women and 404,000 healthy children aged six months to under 5 years.   

Commenting on the decline in swine flu cases, Sir Liam Donaldson, chief medical officer for England, said:

“Levels of pandemic ‘flu are currently very low virtually concluding the second wave of the infection in this country.

“Although throughout it has not been a severe illness for most people, children and younger adults have developed serious complications, been admitted to hospital and some have died.

“I strongly advise that those eligible for the vaccine who have not yet had it, get the jab and protect themselves."Cases of swine flu have risen again with an estimated 78,000 new infections in the past week, up from 53,000 the week before.

November 2009

The latest official figures for England also show that the number of people needing critical care has jumped substantially, rising to 157 patients - the highest number since swine flu emerged. A further 594 needed less intensive hospital treatment in the past week.

The UK has seen 15 more deaths related to the virus, bringing the total to 137 since June: 97 in England, 25 in Scotland, eight in Northern Ireland and seven in Wales. Nearly half of the deaths have been in people with severe underlying health problems. This group is being given priority in the national vaccination programme that began last week.

Postal Disruption

Doctors are reported to be considering alternative ways of contacting patients during the ongoing postal dispute. The industrial action means there is uncertainty over posting vaccination information to patients, so GPs might turn to telephone calls, emails and text messages to help set some appointments. Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association's GPs’ committee, told the BBC: "I think we will get there. It will just mean a lot of hard work.”

The National Vaccination Programme

NHS hospitals are now giving their first doses of swine flu vaccine to the patients facing greatest risk of complications. Healthcare staff dealing with the public are also being vaccinated to help keep medical services running smoothly and to prevent them from passing the virus to patients.

Some GPs have also received initial supplies of the vaccine, with all practices set to receive doses in the coming weeks. Patients will be contacted by their GPs if they fall into one of the at-risk categories.
The order of priority will be:

People aged from six months to 65 years in current seasonal flu risk groups

-All pregnant women
-Those living with people with compromised immune systems, for example those recieving cancer treatment
-People aged over 65 in the current seasonal flu risk groups.

The government has produced a swine flu vaccination leaflet  with more information The chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, said: "I urge everyone in the priority groups to have the vaccine - it will help prevent people in clinical risk groups from getting swine flu and the complications that may arise from it."

The latest swine flu update

As of October 29 2009:

Rates have risen again, with an estimated 78,000 new swine flu cases in the past week, up from 53,000 the week before.

There has been an increase in deaths related to swine flu. To date, there have been 137 deaths in the UK; 97 in England, 25 in Scotland, eight in Northern Ireland and seven in Wales.

There has been a further rise in hospitalisations, with 751 patients with swine flu in hospital in England. This is the greatest number since July.

The number of people needing critical care is at its highest level yet, at 157 patients in England.

The disease is mild in most people so far, but is proving severe in a small minority of cases.

The swine flu vaccination programme is underway: it is expected that 12m high-risk patients will receive the vaccine by the end of November.

Who is a priority for vaccination with the H1N1 swine flu vaccine?

People who are most at risk from swine flu need to be vaccinated first. These groups are, in order of priority:

People aged between six months and 65 years in the seasonal flu vaccine at-risk groups.

All pregnant women, subject to licensing. The European Medicines Agency, who license the vaccine, will indicate whether it can be given to all pregnant women or whether it should only be offered at certain stages of pregnancy.

People who live with those whose immune systems are compromised, such as cancer patients or people with HIV/AIDS.

People aged 65 and over in the seasonal flu vaccine at-risk groups.

Frontline health and social care workers will also be offered the vaccine at the same time as the first clinical at-risk groups. Health and social care workers are both at an increased risk of catching swine flu and of spreading it to other at-risk patients.

What are the seasonal flu vaccine at-risk groups?

These are people with:

-chronic respiratory disease, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),
-chronic heart disease, such as heart failure,
-chronic kidney disease, such as kidney failure,
-chronic liver disease, such as chronic hepatitis,
-chronic neurological disease, such as Parkinson's disease,
-diabetes requiring insulin or oral hypoglycaemic drugs, and
-immunosuppression (a suppressed immune system), due to disease or treatment.

Why are healthy people over 65 and children not a priority for the swine flu vaccine?

Healthy people aged over 65 appear to have some natural immunity to the swine flu virus. And while children are disproportionately affected by swine flu, the vast majority make a full recovery - therefore the experts do not advise that children (other than those in at-risk groups) should be vaccinated initially.

Revised planning assumptions

It was announced on September 3 that estimates of deaths in the worst-case scenario for swine flu have been lowered. The government's expert advisers on swine flu, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said that new data from the UK, north America, Australia and elsewhere give a better picture of how the virus might spread in the autumn.

The revised planning assumptions  have cut the estimated death toll in a worst-case scenario from 65,000 people in the UK to 19,000, assuming that 30% of the population is infected.

These forecasts and others in the report are based on a "reasonable worst case" value and should not be taken as a prediction of how the pandemic will develop. Planning against the reasonable worst-case scenario will ensure, however, that plans for all likely scenarios are robust.

The Department of Health said: “In light of this new information, the estimates for the number of people who might need hospitalisation and the proportion of people with swine flu who could die have been reduced.”

Vaccination should cut hospitalisation

These new planning assumptions do not take account of the vaccination programme which, once it has begun, will help to further reduce the number of people needing hospitalisation. However, the department added, we must not be complacent. While in the majority of people it is mild, for some this virus can be a serious illness.

Who is at greatest risk of serious complications from swine flu?

Some people are more at risk of complications if they catch swine flu, and need to start taking antivirals as soon as it is confirmed that they have the illness. Doctors may advise some high-risk patients to take antivirals before they have symptoms, if someone close to them has swine flu.
It is already known that people are particularly vulnerable if they have:

-chronic (long-term) lung disease,
-chronic heart disease,
-chronic kidney disease,
-chronic liver disease,
-chronic neurological disease (neurological disorders include motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease)
-immunosuppression (whether caused by disease or treatment), or diabetes mellitus.

Also at risk are:

-patients who have had drug treatment for asthma in the past three years,
-pregnant women
-people aged 65 and over
-children under five.