Occupational Health journal, which from the April edition incorporates Occupational Health Review, has the task of looking at last week’s report on the health of working age people from Dame Carol Black and analysing how likely it is to succeed and what is likely to happen as a result of it. What do you think? Here is my initial stab at unpacking the key themes (in no particular order) :
1) Capacity – how many practitioners do we need, and of what type?
2) Leadership – Doctors? Nurses? Public health managers?
3) Competence – how do we keep the cowboys out? Who’s going to accredit the people delivering services? Will we get standards?
4) GPs – access to OH? Attitude to OH?
5) Commissioning and funding – how will it work and whose funds are going to get raided?
6) Line managers, employers, SMEs. Does the business case stack up?
7) The evidence base – what evidence? Where will it be available? Who’s going to pay for it? Can we apply findings on MSDs to other health problems?
8) What will be the involvement of the private sector and health insurers?
9) Most stakeholders accept the biopsychosocial model but is linking wellbeing of employees to productivity a step to far?
Maybe these are the wrong themes? I need to be told.