Finding the Occupational Health Department

Located in the Purple Zone, you’ll be able to find Occupational Health by following signage – while also keeping an eye out for signage pointed towards ‘Windy Nook Outpatients’.

To find the department via ECC Main Entrance, enter the building and head past reception and down the steps in front of you into the main atrium. You should see a shop, Subway and Costa Coffee on your left. Hug the wall by the right and continue down the corridor past the lifts to its end – you’ll pass our Patient Experience team on your right on the way. At the ‘junction’, turn left down the hill and take the first right. Continue to walk down this corridor to your first right, where you’ll find the entrance to Windy Nook Outpatients. Enter and walk to the very end of this corridor, turning left at its end. Head through the door ahead of you and you’re at reception.

To find the department via the Windy Nook entrance, enter and head straight forward to the end of the corridor. At the ‘junction’, turn right and continue straight on until you see signage above your head for Windy Nook Outpatients. You should pass the Physio Room, Agile, a lift and the Post Room on your left before you reach this sign and corridor. When here, enter the corridor and follow it to its very end. Turn left, head through the door and you’ll be in Occupational Health reception.

Accessibility

The Occupational Health and Wellbeing department is accessible to people with limited mobility and disability.

We would recommend any visitors in who are in wheelchairs, mobility scooters or otherwise access the building via ECC Main Entrance and take the lift on the atrium down. They can then head for Occupational Health by following signage for Windy Nook Outpatients.

If you have any concerns regarding accessibility and require any support with this then please contact us in advance of your appointment so we can agree suitable arrangements with you.

Arriving at our department

Upon arrival at our department, you should be greeted by a member of our admin team on reception. Please note our departmental opening times of 08:30am – 5:00pm on weekdays, with the exception of Fridays when we close at 4:30pm. Our department is not open over weekends and bank holidays.

When you arrive, one of our lovely admin team will greet you from behind the desk. The administrator will ask you for details of your appointment – usually your appointment time and your name. They’ll then check you in through our Occupational Health system, notifying the clinician who’ll be seeing you that you have arrived.

If you aren’t greeted by a receptionist, please take a seat and we’ll be with you soon – it’s likely that one of our team has had to run a quick errand.

Appointments

Colleagues visit Occupational Health for a range of appointments, including but not limited to pre-employment checks, vaccinations, counselling and more. Generally, all you will need to do when attending appointment is enter Occupational Health and report to reception where our admin team should be on hand to greet you. However, in the instances below, it may also be handy to know what else you might expect.

Management Referral Appointments:

Those who are attending Management Referral appointments will undergo an assessment with an Occupational Health Clinician (this may be a doctor, nurse, physiotherapist or ergonomics specialist).  At the end of the consultation the contents of a report will be discussed with you, which will be sent on to your manager with your consent. Prior to this being released to your manager, you will have the right to see report and to ask for any factual information to be corrected.  You can withdraw your consent for the report to be shared.  Please note that in instances where you withdraw consent for sharing a report, a line manager may make decisions in absence of an Occupational Health opinion. Reports are also copied to People & OD.

Physiotherapy Appointments:
Those attending a Physiotherapy appointment for the first time will be asked to complete a brief questionnaire prior to their appointment. This questionnaire is designed to give the Physiotherapist a better idea of your challenges prior to commencing an appointment.

Can’t make your appointment?
We ask that anyone who can no longer make an appointment let us know in far as advance as possible of this via phone call on 0191 445 5494 or email on [email protected].

Consent

When interacting with Occupational Health services through appointments, we will often need to obtain your consent for certain matters. Examples of instances when this may occur and how can be seen below.

Management Referral Appointments:

Those who are attending Management Referral Appointments will complete an assessment during their appointment, forming a report. Prior to this being released to your manager, you will have the right to see report, to ask for any factual information to be corrected and to withdraw your consent for it to be shared. Please note that in instances where you withdraw consent for sharing, a line manager is likely to make decisions in absence of an Occupational Health opinion. Reports are also sent to HR.

Immunisations and Bloods:

Prior to any vaccinations and/or testing through bloods, the Occupational Health nurses will require verbal consent, and may further inform you of risks by passing you relevant information leaflets for you to read. Your consent and any such actions will be recorded through our digital Occupational Health Management record system.

Physiotherapy Appointments:

During an appointment, your physiotherapist will ask for your consent to assess your issue(s). This will be recorded through our digital Occupational Health Management record system.

Ergonomics Appointments:

Those who have an ergonomic consultation or review appointment will be asked to provide consent to share reports from the appointment with your manager. Again, please note that if you refuse to share, line managers will likely be making decisions in absence of an Occupational Health/Ergonomics opinion.

Other queries:

For any further queries, whether around consent such as for Medical Records Requests or otherwise, please contact the team directly by email on [email protected], and we will do our best to help clarify matters for you.