The University Occupational Health Service, is located at Crawford House, Booth Street East, Manchester M13 9QS (number 31 on the campus map).

Use the Crawford House Central & West entrance on Booth Street East or via St. Peter’s House steps in to Crawford House at 1st floor level. The Occupational Health Service is located on the 4th floor.

The University’s Occupational Health Service (OHS) can provide you with confidential care, support and advice on managing health issues.

We would encourage you to register with a General Practitioner (GP), who is a family doctor and who delivers primary care as soon as you know your Manchester address. You will need some proof of address – if you live in University accommodation, you can use the confirmation of registration letter we sent to your University email address. GPs provide a range of non-emergency services by appointment – including: Examinations, medication prescriptions, vaccinations and referrals to other medical specialists.

You can use the NHS Find a GP website to find a list of practices near your address. This will direct you to the GPs’ websites to find out how to register as a patient. See a map of GPs near campus

Alternatively, the University GP Service is an on-campus medical GP practice provided by the Robert Darbishire Practice. It is also located within Crawford House and you can register by following this link: Robert Darbishire Practice website.

Staff in the OHS are registered nurses and doctors who are qualified in Occupational Health and as such have expertise to deal with a number of issues. This includes:

• Advice on a student’s fitness to study and appropriate adjustments that may be required (in consultation with the University Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS)).
• Advice on fitness to study, where there is a concern in relation to a student’s medical fitness to attend university, study and sit examinations.
• Health surveillance where required by legislation.
• Support for students when concern has been raised about their drug or alcohol intake.
• Health screening and vaccination appropriate to the demands of the Programme.
• Provision of comprehensive travel advice & assessment of Fitness to Travel including advice on vaccinations required. Confirmation of fitness to travel is dependent on the specific requirements of the host placement.
• Provision of health promotion advice on a range of issues.

Students suddenly taken ill on campus will need to contact the First aider, call 111 or 999 or call their own GP as appropriate.

The OHS is open Monday to Friday, 9.00 am to 4.00 pm and can be contacted as follows: 0161 275 2858, OccupationalHealth@manchester.ac.uk

The OHS cannot duplicate your NHS GP services but if you have a health concern that may affect your fitness to study/attend placement, you can self-refer to the University Occupational Health Service at any time.

Where concerns have been raised about your health, you may be referred to the service by your School. You will be advised of the reason for referral. If you have been referred to attend the OHS it must be treated as priority, and you must attend your appointment.

Clinical Placement Clearance Screening

Screening and proof is required of successful vaccination against the following: Hepatitis B antigen (& advice to non-responders), confirmation of Negative Hepatitis C and HIV antibodies & Negative Hep B surface antigen, in addition to clearance for other infectious diseases, including Tuberculosis risk assessment & ensuring childhood vaccinations for Varicella, Measles, Mumps and Rubella are in place. Help with this is available to you at the University’s Occupational Health Service and is offered from your first year. 

You must complete your screening when invited in your first semester. Clinical Placement EPP clearance is required for attendance at the following:

GEM Year Health in  Greater Manchester block (Semester 2)
MB ChB Year 2 Early Clinical Experience (GP and Hospital Visits from Semester 1)
MB ChB Year 3 – all placement activity

Clinical Placement Exposure Prone Procedures (EPP) clearance will be given once the initial blood tests and vaccination history assessment are concluded, however you are still required and expected to complete the full course of Hepatitis B vaccinations over the course of several months, even though your clearance document has been issued.

You will receive copies of your Clinical Placement Certificate, a Vaccination History Record (& validated copies of laboratory viral screening laboratory reports on request) directly from Occupational Health. Currently, The Clinical Placement Certificate is securely emailed to the student with a copy to school for their record. The Vaccination History Record (which also has a summary of the IVS Blood test results) is emailed directly to the student for their records. Provision of this documentation will also ensure any additional support or adjustments can be implemented. 

You must make sure you keep these records safe so that you can produce them if requested to at a later date. The School will receive confirmation of your clearance status and will pass this on to the Clinical Education Campus or Early Clinical Experience provider.

Please note that you will not be permitted to enter a clinical environment on the programme unless you have received your Clinical Placement Certificate.  If not cleared in time, you would be required to miss key activities which could impact your attendance and progression and eventually your ability to continue on the programme.

Questions relating to health screening or documentation should be directed to:
University Occupational Health Service, 0161 275 2858, OccupationalHealth@manchester.ac.uk 

Reminder for Students at Risk of Exposure to Tuberculosis (TB)

If you have contact with family or patients infected with TB or had contact with TB material, you have a small risk of contracting TB, even if you have been previously vaccinated. Initial infection with TB may result in:

• Complete elimination;
• latency – where there are no symptoms, but the TB Mycobacterium organism remains dormant in the body and may reactivate later due to immunosuppression by, for example, old age, diseases such as HIV or treatments such as chemotherapy and corticosteroids;
• progression to active TB over the following weeks or months.

Pulmonary TB causes the following symptoms:

• Persistent productive cough which may be accompanied by blood streaked sputum;
• persistent fevers, especially sweating at night;
• loss of appetite and/or unexplained weight loss without other obvious cause;
• loss of energy.

Many of the above symptoms could have other causes, for which you should consult your GP.
If you know or suspect you may be immunocompromised, if you have experienced any of the above symptoms, or you have travelled for more than 4 weeks [or been born] in a country of high TB incidence you must arrange an appointment for further advice, in confidence, with the University OHS.

Please also read: Inoculation Injuries Prevention Action and Advice for Healthcare Workers