Fitness to operate a forklift, confirmed by an occupational health advisor
Warehouses, distribution centres, builders' merchants and manufacturers have staff who drive forklifts every day. The forklift medical confirms each operator is fit to do so, and gives your organisation a certificate to keep with their training record.
Six checks, with a hearing test added where your site requires one.
Forklift operators
For counterbalance, reach and other lift trucks; plant operators take the safety-critical medical.
Assessed to the DVLA standards
As HSE's guidance recommends – Group 1 for most work, Group 2 where your site's risk assessment calls for it.
Repeated to your site's cycle
The review date is noted on the certificate.
The forklift medical
The forklift medical beside the standard safety-critical medical, so you can see what each covers.
Forklift medical
For counterbalance, reach and other lift trucks, in warehousing, distribution and manufacturing.
- Health questionnaire and medication review
- Height, weight and BMI
- Blood pressure
- Vision – distance and near
- Urinalysis
- Musculoskeletal and mobility assessment
Standard safety-critical medical
For construction, plant, working at height and lone working.
- Everything in the forklift medical, plus
- Colour vision
- Audiometry (hearing)
- Mental health screening
Added to the forklift medical
Where your site requires them.
What to bring: photo ID, your glasses or contact lenses if you wear them, a list of any medication taken, and your site's medical form if it has one.
Your medical at the Medwyn Centre
Our clinic in Dorking
Individual bookings are seen at the Medwyn Centre, with paid parking behind it and Dorking station a ten-minute walk.
Occupational health advisors
Each medical is carried out by an occupational health advisor, with oversight from an occupational health physician.
Time for your questions
The appointment leaves time to ask everything that you need to know.
SEQOHS accredited
An independently accredited occupational health service.
What HSE's guidance asks of you
The duty
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 require employers to make sure lift trucks are operated only by people who are trained, competent and fit to do so.
HSE's guidance
L117, HSE's Approved Code of Practice for lift trucks, points employers to the DVLA fitness-to-drive standards and to medical advice where there is any doubt about a person's fitness.
The certificate
The forklift medical gives you that medical advice, with a certificate to keep alongside the operator's training record and a review date.
Forklift medical questions
No law names one. HSE's Approved Code of Practice for lift trucks, L117, says operators should be fit to drive and points employers to the DVLA fitness-to-drive standards, with medical advice where there is any doubt. Most employers and sites ask for a certificate on that basis, and training schemes such as RTITB, AITT and ITSSAR expect operators to be medically fit.
The DVLA fitness-to-drive standards, as L117 recommends – Group 1 for most forklift work, and Group 2 where your site's risk assessment calls for it, such as night work or hazardous loads. If your site sets its own standard, we assess to that.
L117 suggests screening operators before they start, then following the Group 2 pattern of a medical every five years from 45 and every year from 65. Your site can set a different interval, and the review date is noted on the certificate.
Not as standard. Where your site requires one, audiometry is added for £45 and carried out in the same appointment.
Our occupational health advisors, with oversight from an occupational health physician. Allow 30 minutes.
Yes. For a team of operators we run the medicals on site across Surrey, Sussex, Kent and London, and nationwide by arrangement. Individual bookings are seen at our clinic in Dorking.
We invoice your organisation; operators do not pay on the day. Each certificate is issued within 24 hours of clinical review.
Ask us first
Tell us about your operators
Tell us how many operators need a medical, where they are based and whether your site requires a hearing test. We'll come back to you with the arrangements and the earliest appointments we can offer. Prefer to talk? Call 01306 873936.
Forklift medicals for your team
At our Surrey clinic or on site with you – tell us the numbers and we'll arrange the appointments.