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Hopefully, I've come through to the right place for views on this. Here goes:
At my unit, when 100+ personnel deploy en masse to a not-very-nice place, we are all required to make an appointment with the Med Centre to have our books checked and fitness to deploy certificate stamped by the nurse. Each individual "consultation" takes approx 10 mins and then there's the waiting time beforehand, so each person is taken from his or her place of employment for at least 30 mins, which equates to over 50 man hours lost.
Whilst I understand the Duty of Care etc, I find this practice inefficient for the following reasons:
1. We take our blue books to CCS/IRT where they are checked by a medic, so why do we need another annual check by a medic. IRT takes place within 2 months of deployment.
2. As we have a Sqn from the unit away at all times, the med centre is constantly full of able-bodied personnel getting chits signed, placing an additional burden on the medical staff. It also takes personnel away from their workplace.
I have checked with FJ Sqns at the two other units that regularly deploy on Ops and they tell me that their med centre get a Sqn nominal roll and highlight the individuals who they feel the need to see in person before they deploy. The remainder (usually 75% and above), get their chits stamped without even visiting the Nurse. No Medical In Confidence issues are breached as the list is sent to the Admin Staff with the names highlighted - nothing more.
It may well be that where my unit deploy to has different preps to where the GR4s go, but having spoken to a PNO from one of these units on the issue, it was implied that we are going through much more pre-deployment pain than we actually have to.
Thoughts please ladies and gents....
At my unit, when 100+ personnel deploy en masse to a not-very-nice place, we are all required to make an appointment with the Med Centre to have our books checked and fitness to deploy certificate stamped by the nurse. Each individual "consultation" takes approx 10 mins and then there's the waiting time beforehand, so each person is taken from his or her place of employment for at least 30 mins, which equates to over 50 man hours lost.
Whilst I understand the Duty of Care etc, I find this practice inefficient for the following reasons:
1. We take our blue books to CCS/IRT where they are checked by a medic, so why do we need another annual check by a medic. IRT takes place within 2 months of deployment.
2. As we have a Sqn from the unit away at all times, the med centre is constantly full of able-bodied personnel getting chits signed, placing an additional burden on the medical staff. It also takes personnel away from their workplace.
I have checked with FJ Sqns at the two other units that regularly deploy on Ops and they tell me that their med centre get a Sqn nominal roll and highlight the individuals who they feel the need to see in person before they deploy. The remainder (usually 75% and above), get their chits stamped without even visiting the Nurse. No Medical In Confidence issues are breached as the list is sent to the Admin Staff with the names highlighted - nothing more.
It may well be that where my unit deploy to has different preps to where the GR4s go, but having spoken to a PNO from one of these units on the issue, it was implied that we are going through much more pre-deployment pain than we actually have to.
Thoughts please ladies and gents....
