RIS-3789-TOM Iss 1

This document sets out requirements and guidance for the management of medical fitness assessment for safety critical workers on the GB mainline railway.

The five-year review of RIS-3451-TOM issue one, RIS-3452-TOM issue one and GOGN3655 issue two recommended a complete overhaul of the standards. This involved rebuilding the standards from basic principles to better support the industry’s needs in light of advances in medical knowledge and practice, developments in medical examinations, and updated legislation.

Transport operators have legal responsibilities to ensure staff performing safety-critical tasks meet medical, psychological and health requirements so they are fit enough to do so. It is important that the medical requirements are demonstrably suitable and legally defensible. It would be damaging to the rail industry’s reputation to have unnecessarily strict requirements that cannot be justified.

This project:

• Aligns medical fitness requirements and guidance with legislation, medical documentation, and guidance from the regulator.
• Provides clarity on areas of medical examinations, where the industry would benefit from a common approach.
• Gives guidance on agreed occupational health advice to satisfy the existing and emerging needs of rail medical practitioners.