First base: occupational health advisers offering primary care

Chris Dyer reports on the evaluation of occupational health projects' effectiveness in giving advice in GPs' surgeries

Occupational ill health is three times more likely to be the cause of absence from work than work-related injury, accounting for 33 million days lost in 2001/02. The human and economic cost of work-related illness is recognised in the HSC 's 10-year occupational health strategy, Securing health together (see Healthy at work, healthy for life: HSC/E goes holistic and Securing health reloaded), which aims to cut the incidence of work-related ill health by 20% and the number of days lost to it by 30% by 2010.