Do occupational physicians agree about ill-health retiral? A study of simulated retirement assessments

A questionnaire survey on simulated ill-health retirement decisions was performed at a scientific conference for local authority medical advisers. Respondents were asked to make decisions based on ten case scenarios drawn from real life. The overall agreement amongst 35 physicians was low, with a kappa statistic of 0.241. There were wide variations amongst respondents, with two physicians accepting all ten cases for retirement while another accepted only one. The survey suggests that there is great potential for inconsistency and inequity in such decisions. An improvement in agreement between physicians might be achieved by training, consensus guidelines and audit. This issue should be addressed by occupational physicians and trustees of superannuation schemes.