Health Surveillance in Newcastle
Health surveillance for Newcastle and Tyneside employers, from subsea and offshore fabrication yards on the Tyne to Team Valley manufacturers and the automotive supply chain along the A19. SEQOHS-accredited checks, onsite or in clinic.
Our Commitment to Excellence
Health Surveillance for Newcastle and Tyneside Employers
Heavy engineering never left the Tyne. Yards and workshops at Wallsend, North Shields and along the river build subsea equipment, cables and structures for the offshore oil, gas and wind industries. Team Valley in Gateshead is one of the largest trading estates in the UK, and the A19 corridor feeds the car plant at Sunderland with a long chain of component suppliers. The result is a workforce exposed to welding fume, grit blasting, paints, noise and vibration every day.
Where a risk assessment shows a hazard that can cause a detectable condition, health surveillance is a legal requirement under COSHH and the noise and vibration regulations. Sigma Health runs SEQOHS-accredited programmes overseen by GMC-registered occupational health doctors, and also provides the OEUK offshore medicals many Tyneside workers need.
Workplace Health Checks in Newcastle
Who Needs Health Surveillance?
Construction across Newcastle and Gateshead, from city-centre schemes to riverside regeneration, brings silica, cement and vibration risks. Typical checks are spirometry for silica dust, skin checks for cement and resins, audiometry for noise and HAVS assessments for vibrating tools, run onsite so crews are not sent off the job.
Plant operators in Newcastle face engine noise and vibration in a safety-critical role. Pairing audiometry with a safety critical medical covers surveillance and fitness for the role in a single appointment.
Breakers, compactors and disc cutters put groundworkers among the workers most at risk of hand-arm vibration syndrome. We follow the HSE tiered approach for HAVS and add lung function tests where cutting creates silica dust.
Marshals must hear warnings and judge moving vehicles reliably. Hearing and vision are checked as part of a fitness-for-task assessment, with audiometry for marshals who also work in noisy areas.
Confined space work falls under the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997, and anyone using breathing apparatus must be fit to wear it. Our confined space medical covers heart and lung fitness, including spirometry.
Licensed asbestos workers need a medical every two years from an HSE-appointed doctor; notifiable non-licensed work needs one at least every three years. See our asbestos medicals.
The Port of Tyne and distribution parks along the A1 and A19 combine noisy plant, FLT work and shift patterns. We provide audiometry where noise exceeds the action values, fitness assessments for drivers and FLT operators, and drug and alcohol testing for safety-sensitive roles.
Tyneside manufacturing runs from subsea fabrication on the river to Team Valley factories and the automotive suppliers on the A19, with welding fume, paints and metalworking fluids common. That usually means a mix of skin surveillance, spirometry with respiratory questionnaires, hearing checks and, where a substance can be measured in the body, biological monitoring.
Baseline checks for anyone joining an exposed role in Newcastle give you a reference point for every later result, and protect you if a claim relates to damage that began before they joined. We often run them with pre-placement medicals.
Display screen users are entitled to an eye test on request under the DSE Regulations. It is not health surveillance in the legal sense, but we can add vision screening for office staff to a site visit.
Fabrication, Offshore and Subsea Engineering
Welding fume is a known cause of lung disease and is classed as a human carcinogen, so welders need respiratory questionnaires and spirometry. Where stainless steel or other alloys are welded, biological monitoring can show how much chromium or nickel is reaching the body. Grit blasting and spray painting add dust, noise and, with some coatings, isocyanates. Grinding, needle guns and impact tools make hand-arm vibration a major risk, assessed through the HSE tiered HAVS process, and audiometry is standard in almost every yard.
Workers heading offshore need an OEUK medical. We can carry it out at the same appointment as their surveillance checks, which cuts down on time away from work.
Book Health Surveillance in Newcastle
Tell us about your yard, plant or site, the number of people and the hazards involved, and we will recommend a programme for your Tyneside workforce. Call 0330 133 6470 or email info@sigmahealth.co.uk.
Which Checks Tyneside Workforces Need
| Hazard | Check | Typical frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Welding fume (mild steel, stainless and alloys) | Spirometry, respiratory questionnaire, and biological monitoring for alloy welding | Baseline, then at least annually |
| Grit blasting, grinding and needle guns | HAVS tiered assessment and audiometry | Baseline, then annual HAVS questionnaire; hearing yearly for two years then every three |
| Spray painting and isocyanate coatings | Respiratory surveillance and biological monitoring | Baseline, closer follow-up in the first year, then as your COSHH assessment sets |
| Metalworking fluids, solvents and resins | Skin surveillance | Baseline, regular responsible-person checks, annual clinical review |
| Presses, machining and production lines | Audiometry | Baseline, yearly for two years, then every three years if stable |
Team Valley, the A19 and Construction
Manufacturers on Team Valley and suppliers along the A19 run press shops, machining, moulding and painting, all of which bring noise, skin and respiratory hazards. Construction across Newcastle and Gateshead adds silica, cement and vibration. We test onsite at yards, plants and sites across Tyneside, Wearside and County Durham, planned around shifts, and every employee receives an outcome after each visit. Clinical details stay confidential unless they consent, and records are kept to COSHH standards (40 years).
FAQs - Health Surveillance in Newcastle
Don't miss out! Call us on 0330 133 6470 now to book your health Surveillance
Occupational Health Across the North East
Our mobile teams work across Tyne and Wear, Northumberland, County Durham and Teesside, testing onsite or arranging clinic appointments for smaller teams. Near Newcastle, we also provide health surveillance in Gateshead, Sunderland, Hartlepool and Darlington.
Employers with sites in other parts of the UK can run one programme across every location, keeping records, recall dates and reports in one place.
Get In Touch
Request a Quote Newcastle Health Surveillance
One of our team will be in touch shortly. Alternatively, please call us on 0330 133 6470 for further information now.
