developing european medical guidance for the railways - a personal view dr olivia carlton ariops...
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Developing European Medical Guidance for the Railways - a personal view
Dr Olivia CarltonARIOPS Conference 30th June 2008
Introduction
The set upMy storyWhat I learned
The set-up
UIC – international Union of Railways. Promotes international co-operation amongst railways. Based in Paris. 6 Regions worldwide.
UIMC – International Union of Railway Doctors
The set-up contd
CER – Community of European Railways and Infrastructure Companies. Promotes the development of rail. Based in Brussels; lobbies at European level. CER has a Human Resources group and they have
set up a medical group to support them
My story
UIMC meeting in Lucerne October 2006Dr Gravert mentioned Safety platform of UIC
had developed draft guidance on D+A testingHe asked UIC d+a subgroup to review itWe looked at it.
Prescriptive Dealt with testing, but not within a framework of
a policy
My story contd
We agreed to review it Decided on a major re-write – done in my
personal time Help from others, especially Howard Watson Used Network Rail standard (and LU standard) to
inform the approach Recommended a framework to address employee
d+a issues as a whole – not just testing
My story contd
Key points presented by me to Dr GravertUIC asked Colin Clifton (also from UK) to edit
for UIC purposes This involved Valmai Hughes as well as me
Final draft accepted by UIC as a guidance document
This guidance then commended to CER
What I learned
Need to be thereNeed to be willing to do the workNeed to be prepared to talk through with
various parties what you are trying to achieve
Why we find it difficult
We are often not there Culture in UK doesn’t tend to acknowledge
importance of OH physicians to HR / Safety leaders
Our national bodies – DfT, RAIB, ORR, RIAC, Network Rail, RSSB and ATOC.
Through RSSB, Dr David Shackleton is sometimes asked to represent UK and ARIOPS and RMAG can contribute
Conclusions
It is possible to be influentialUseful to UK in longer run to have our inputHow can we persuade national bodies that
our input is important?And who will pay for it??