[Relations between the occupational physician and the general practitioner]

The occupational physician (OP) and the general practitioner (GP) both aim at maintaining and promoting public health. The attending physician is the physician who has been freely chosen by the patient whilst the occupational physician is assigned by the company. Although synergy between both professions might seem obvious, in reality it is not always so. The focus of the occupational physician's work is on the worker in his work place. Through health monitoring action and knowledge of jobs and positions, the occupational physician aims to contribute to the improvement of well-being at work. Medical examinations result in drafting a form stating the person's ability or inability to occupy his/her assigned job. In line with the required respect for the patient's rights and, hence, with his/her authorization, the GP may transmit the medical information the said GP deems useful to the OP, e.g. back-to-work medical examinations and pre-back-to-work medical consultations are opportunities to establish a contact between both practitioners in view of considering the possibilities of adapting the workplace situation at the time of resumption of work. The GP should know that there exists an appeal opportunity with the Office in charge of Monitoring Well-being at Work (Employment Federal Public Service) against a decision that by which the worker is not allowed to stay in his assigned work task. During the medical examinations the OP may endorse the action of the GP by strengthening the worker/patient's awareness of the fact that his/her health problems must be adequately taken into account and by organizing information sessions about general interest campaigns about, for instance, cardiovascular risk prevention or a campaign about quitting smoking or reducing alcohol consumption to a more sensible and reasonable level. Knowledge of delayed effects of professional exposure should be consolidated in GPs; the possibility of drawing attention to one's suspicions about occupational illnesses to the Fund for Occupational Illnesses must also again brought to mind. In order to establish a follow-up program on the health of patients beyond their professional activity, it is necessary to draft a "liaison document", between the OP and the GP, which identifies the professional risks workers/patients have been exposed to. In sum, it is important to provide GPs with means to identify the patient's OP and consolidate their knowledge of occupational medicine by organizing on-going training modules.