Reply to: medical check

[Aman]

My client wants to offer a contractor a job but is worried that he may be alcoholic. I have suggested we run a medical check on him first as it is a long term assignment. I am not sure how he is going to react has anyone here been asked to do a medical prior to being offered a contract?

I worked in the oil and gas sector and have quite a few UKOOA medicals, which include an EMIT drugs of abuse assay with chain of custody. It has been a while since I've had involvement in the industry so I can't recall if they ran any alcoholism tests. The OH clinicians always run Multistix tests which include Urobilinogen, a liver metabolite which can suggest liver disease, however UB can be elevated by innoculations, medicines and other factors, so it's not diagnostic of alcoholism but somewhere to start on a Diff DX..
They'll take bloods but not sure whether they do FBC, U&Es, AST/ALT, ESR, BBV or what. They are a bit reluctant to say, if a Pt asks, say for the purposes of getting a personal health check on the cheap (as I did), they try to upsell to an executive health check.
There are loads of people who use offshore work as a Betty Ford clinic; two weeks dry offshore two weeks on the piss onshore.

There isn't a single biochemical marker that will indicate with any reliablility whether the Pt is alcoholic, and even with a battery of assays the results are suggestive of alcoholism at best (DX value about 70%). A breath test obviously can only indicate if they have been drinking very recently

I'd suggest giving TDL Pathology a call and ask them about the validity, reliability, sensitivity and specificity of tests. They do most of the path work for Harley Street doctors. Their website has a pricelist of running various assay profiles and the turnaround time, these costs exclude taking samples.

If you can find a GP that is licenced to undertake UKOOA medicals, and mention concerns of alcoholism then they can modiify the pricing to include appropriate assays. It can work out cheaper than using a private GP or bespoke OH screening.

If you can write something in the contract or better still pre-qual requiring them to sign up to a drugs and alcohol testing policy then you can drop a test on them any time you want. Whenm you want to drop the screening on them, book a taxi to the clinic, have it waiting for them and if they refuse to go, you can get rid.

Not sure of the legal or ethical issues and consequences of doing this for only one candidate..
Do you think s/he would stay with you if he found out only s/he has had been singled out to undergo a medical of limited diagnostic value? I doubt I would.

Disclosure: I'm not associated with TDL in any way, I just don';t know of many other private path labs and I doubt an NHS path lab would entertain telephone enquiries.

[RobertRice]

I have a strong feeling that there is'nt anyone on this site that would pass a drugs and alcohol medical. As for the mental bit ...

The best developers I've worked with have either drank too much or smoked too much green - nothing new there.

Sounds an odd one. The client thinking the candidate has 'a drink problem' sounds quite subjective? In any case, if he/she doesn't deliver and comes in late etc, reeking of booze then they are out of the door anyway?

[AtW]

Churchill was crap at C++.

I won't speak for C++ but he totally ****ed up twice at Assembly.

Last time was just last year here and the other time was so long ago that it no longer matters.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

It probably still is worth talking to HR people.

[d000hg]

As someone else pointed out, why take the chance? You don't owe him any obligation, so just move on to the next candidate.

That said though, Winston Churchill and William Pitt liked the odd dram. So you/they may be missing a good candidate, unless he went totally off the rails.

Churchill was crap at C++.

[mudskipper]

[SueEllen]

Why do they think he's an alcy? A fellow contractor I worked with had the shakes but was not an alcy - even though many suspected otherwise.

Also there are some medical conditions where people's breath smells of alcohol. Even medical staff have been caught out by this.

As Halo pointed out both you and the client need to be careful.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Why do they think he's an alcy? A fellow contractor I worked with had the shakes but was not an alcy - even though many suspected otherwise.

[OwlHoot]

My client wants to offer a contractor a job but is worried that he may be alcoholic. I have suggested we run a medical check on him first as it is a long term assignment. I am not sure how he is going to react has anyone here been asked to do a medical prior to being offered a contract?

As someone else pointed out, why take the chance? You don't owe him any obligation, so just move on to the next candidate.

That said though, Winston Churchill and William Pitt liked the odd dram. So you/they may be missing a good candidate, unless he went totally off the rails.

[Mich the Tester]

I have a strong feeling that there is'nt anyone on this site that would pass a drugs and alcohol medical.

As for the mental bit ...

oops

[DodgyAgent]

I have a strong feeling that there is'nt anyone on this site that would pass a drugs and alcohol medical. As for the mental bit ...

[psychocandy]

Go for it. Maybe even throw in a mental health assessment, you never know. We hired a guy who seemed normal at interview but after a few months completely lost his mind after his wife started shagging a 18 year old guy she met off plentyoffish. We had no end of trouble from him including him alleging that he spotted me standing in front of his house with a gun in my hand.
Last I heard he was admitted to some mental health institute.

Hmmm. Be careful with that one. Isn't it 1 in 4 people will have some sort of mental health problem in their life. Could turn up more problems than you think.

Remember, we're all just a step away from it. Prime example - Gary Speed.

[Halo Jones]

I was just pointing out that the only person to come to the aid of an agent was a permie.

& is anyone suprised by that ?

[Pondlife]

It probably still is worth talking to HR people as they might be able to advise on how to communicate about a sensitive issue, so as not to offend and destroy the business relationship.

I wasn't saying it wasn't relevant.

I was just pointing out that the only person to come to the aid of an agent was a permie.

[Mich the Tester]

To be fair Dodgy, Halo is a permie. So the useful advice you've had from contractors is still zero.

It probably still is worth talking to HR people as they might be able to advise on how to communicate about a sensitive issue, so as not to offend and destroy the business relationship.