My wife has been recently diagnosed with Chronic myeloid leukaemia, has responded excellently to treatment and has been told by her consultant doctor that she probably has a normal life expectancy, but will have to take drugs for the rest of her life – although the guidance on this might change in coming years. Treatment of Chronic myeloid leukaemia has changed massively since the release of Imatinib in the UK in 2003 (2001 in USA), which allowed patients a normal life expectancy, whereas before most died within 5 years of diagnosis. It is still impossible for those diagnosed with Chronic myeloid leukaemia to get life insurance, as insurers go on historic life expectancy data, and this has not yet caught up with developments over the last decade. My question is that when my wife applies for jobs, which will not be for a few years as she is happy where she is for the time being (she is a Social Worker), will employers refuse to offer her a job as she would possibly fail an Occupational Health Assessment? I don’t know much about occupational health, but my fear is that they could go off the same sort of historic information that life insurers do? My wife would be able to put down when applying for jobs that she is disabled (cancer is classed as a disability), and some employers offer guaranteed interviews to those who are disabled, and she is very much a high flying Social Worker, and excellent employee, but my question goes back to the occupational health assessment? I have tried googling pre-employment occupational health assessments for those with disabilities but am struggling to get an answer.
Thank you very much for any help.
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Pre-employment occupational health assessments for those with Chronic myeloid leukaemia
This is a very interesting question and one that bothers me. I work for the NHS and so could tick the disability box and guarantee an interview. We can't lie about our health but I haven't applied for jobs as my feeling is that employees would find some excuse not to employ us ( guessing they would dress it up as something else other than the CML). I know the OH assessment would come after a job offer. My profession is a very small one and I am sure that anyone in my profession in London (where I live) would know about me via the grapevine.
My guess we will never get a true answer to this question. My situation is minimally different as I have had a BMT and a couple of subsequent issues.
What experiences do other people have?
Susan
I think it varies from work place to work place.
I have had three different jobs since diagnosis and i have used the disability tick box to get an interview. The only difficulty with that is knowing whether they want to interview you or if they just have to interview you!
I have also had OH assessments and never had a problem - the assessors have all been very clued up on CMl and have not seen it as an issue. Where i currently work i have no sickness trigger points due to my CML and OH are always happy to discuss any issues i have.
Your wife sounds like she is good at her job so i hope that she will not have a problem should she apply for something different.
Best wishes
K
This is an interesting topic - when I was changing jobs a couple of years ago, I spoke to an employment lawyer friend of mine and his advice was not to mention my CML until the OH assessment came. The reason he gave was that, on the assumption there is no reason why I could not do the job for which I was applying, it was better on both sides for the interview to be conducted in ignorance of my CML. Otherwise, it might influence their decision one way or the other, wrongly so.
When the OH assessment came, I was told not to hide anything so I disclosed my CML and it was absolutely fine. We all know of course that, if we are responding well to treatment, we have no OH issues so this should not be a problem. The only thing we need is time to attend our appointments. And if some spurious problem is raised, then they are breaking the law. All employers (prospective and current) must comply with the Equality Act, which covers us automatically as cancer patients, precisely to try to avoid these prejudices. Macmillan has a useful guide here
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Documents/GetInvolved/Campaigns/WorkingThrou...
As for benefits like group life cover, that has never been refused to me as part of a benefits package at work (I did get a reduced benefit at first with my CML but it is no longer reduced). Individual life insurance is different - that remains a problem. As travel insurance can be - I think my CML may now be coverable since I am 5 years post diagnosis and still here... Yes, the insurers are still in the dark ages...
Good luck
Richard