In accordance with health and safety regulations, preventive medical examinations play a very important role in the context of employing employees. They are obligatory, and details of the manner and scope of their implementation can be found in the regulation of the Minister of Health and Social Welfare. According to it, preventive medical examinations are divided into preliminary, periodic and control.

Each employee is exposed to harmful factors that occur at work. Contrary to appearances, disease changes concern not only people who perform their duties in difficult conditions on a daily basis. The sooner alarming symptoms are detected, the sooner preventive measures or treatment can be implemented. All this to improve the health of the employee or even make him bet on a different type of employment. Failure or inappropriate conduct of preventive examinations may result in legal consequences for the employer, as well as may affect the health and productivity of the employee. The research is aimed at determining the employee’s ability to perform official duties in a given position.

The legal basis for conducting preventive medical examinations of employees is the Regulation of the Minister of Health and Social Welfare on conducting medical examinations of employees, the scope of preventive health care over employees and medical certificates issued for the purposes provided for in the Labor Code. It entered into force on 30 May 1996 and since then it has been amended to meet changing employment standards and market needs.

Due to their nature and frequency, preventive medical examinations are divided into:

Initial; Periodic; Control.

• Preliminary tests

The obligation to carry out preventive initial medical examinations covers persons recruited to work, juvenile workers transferred to another post and other workers transferred to another post, if their working conditions change. The examinations are carried out at the expense of the employer, who is then obliged to keep the medical certificate in accordance with legal requirements. All this in order to submit them in the event of a possible inspection.

I do not have to perform preliminary tests:

• persons readmitted to work in the same company for the same position or for a post with the same working conditions, if no more than 30 days have passed since the termination of the employment relationship;
• persons changing jobs, if they sign a new contract within less than 30 days of termination of the employment relationship with the previous employer and the position and scope of their duties will coincide with the previous employment.

• Periodic examinations

Periodic examinations are performed with different frequency, which is determined directly by the occupational doctor. It depends, m.in on the individual health predispositions of the patient, as well as on the specificity of the profession. This type of research is also carried out at the employer’s expense. The research is to determine the employee’s ability to perform work in the current position. This applies primarily to professions in which you come into contact with harmful substances or perform them in very difficult conditions. If there is noise at the workplace, the employee should also be referred for two types of tests – initial examination and periodic examination.

• Follow-up tests

This type of testing must be performed by employees who have not been able to work for more than 30 days. Also carried out at the expense of the employer. Their task is to determine the employee’s ability to perform official duties after a long absence associated with health problems. These problems do not have to result directly from the specificity of the profession.

All examinations are carried out on the basis of a referral issued by the employer. In accordance with health and safety regulations, the purpose of each preventive examination is to determine whether in a given case there are any contraindications to perform work at the indicated position.

Source: https://inzynieriabhp.pl/profilaktyczne-badania-lekarskie-bhp/

Supported by Norway through Norway Grants 2014-2021, in the frame of the Programme “Social Dialogue – Decent Work”.