Why occupational health should be universally accessible

Employers, workers, and the healthcare profession can all benefit from occupational health, but only if it’s accessible. More people than ever in the UK are becoming economically inactive, often because of ill health.1 But what is occupational health? How does it fit into the healthcare landscape? And can it help us tackle the current issues with labour force supply?Occupational health is all about the relation between work and health. This link goes both ways. We know that work is generally good for our health,2 but it can also cause and exacerbate ill health. Though we may have learnt at medical school about rare occupational diseases such as pigeon fancier’s lung, the most common occupational illness is work related mental ill health.3 In the fourth quarter of 2022, 2.5 million people of working age4 were economically inactive owing to long term ill health or disability, more than 20% of whom said…
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