• Promote health for all employees.
• Maintain work ability and employability of employees.
• Reduce absenteeism rate and burden of disease.
• Reduce Health Care cost.
• Use sickness absence monitoring to build a health profile for each employee.
• Provide continues Primary Medical care to employees.
• Early identification and treatment of disease.
• Chronic conditions can be controlled by regular follow-up's with the OHNP's.
• Comply with all legislative requirements and standards.
• Develop and provide relevant policies and procedures.
• Implementing quality standards.
• Minimization of risks.
• Reduce possible claims against company. E.g. Noise Induce Hearing loss.
• Protection of employees from hazardous and stressors at work.
• Effective utilization of resources.

• Pre-employment medicals are not only about avoiding future blame. They also determine whether an employee is suited to his / her job description and capable of performing their duties.
• Admin personnel need adequate near vision and normal colour vision if filing is colour coded. Unless they are employed as disabled individuals, they need adequate hearing to participate in meetings and take instructions from colleagues.
• If they are employed as disabled individuals for BEE points, specific measurements of the disability need to be documented for Department of Labour.
• Functional assessment of the spine and posture is needed as with any other employee to ensure they are suited to the ergonomics of the desk / computer work station.
• As with any other employee their physical and mental health needs assessment to ensure that any problems are identified and conditions are adequately controlled.
• Occupational health medicals are risk assessments to determine whether an employee can perform the job description he / she was employed to do, for the next year (or 2 years in the case of admin personnel).
• A healthy work force is more productive. This could save the employer time and money wasted on performance counselling and possible CCMA cases if the Occupational Health service provider can pick up red flags on pre-employment medicals.

Dr. Minette Gerber