Email Enquiry
Subject: Fire-fighter Fitness - How Do You Ensure Fitness in Your Organisations
Date
of Initial Email : Mon 07/01/2008
Initial Email Detail:
I recognise many companies have strict health checking procedures, however, fail to really grasp 'fitness' It would be great to share your thoughts for Jeremy and the other members on how it is done or even how it should be done. How do you ensure YOUR Fire-fighters are 'fit for purpose' - excuse the pun
Hi Kevin,
We've kept very quiet here for a long while, but now we too have a question for the membership!
One of the measures we take to try and avoid death or injury to our fire-fighters, both whole time and volunteer, during incidents (or training!) is an annual fitness test. Currently we use a VO2max test using an ergometer cycle with O2 measurement and ECG monitoring where members are subjected to a steadily increasing wattage until they can go "no further", ie. their genuine VO2 maximum. Currently our standard requirement is a measured VO2max of 35 ml/kg/min. This standard is to be met irrespective of the firefighters age, failure to meet the standard results in a four month period in which additional physical training can be carried out, during which time the firefighter is not operationally active. If after the four months the standard is still not met the firefighters membership stops until such time as the standard is achieved.
We are starting to notice the effects of an increasing average age in our site population and would be very keen to hear how other industrial fire brigades / emergency response teams measure individuals fitness for duty and what standards they apply.
What test method do other organisations in the industry use?
What level of fitness has to be met? (and is this adjusted with age?)
Any information would be warmly received.
Second Email:
I too would welcome any information regarding the above.
At present we work under a simular regime to Jeremy. We are at present in
discussions with our H.R. ( treehuggers ) people regarding the Age
Discrmination Act, they are telling me that Firefighters can stay "On the
run " as long as they pass their medical / fitness tests, however if there
is any discrepancies the Doctors will not inform me ( even if it is basic
fitness ) as they belive that this falls under the " Medical
Confidentiality " heading.
These problems will become more prevelent in the future, as I have been
informed that Nationally Fire & Rescue Services are lowering their medical
Standards.Another point that I would raise is that if standard is set there
should be no allowancies for age, after all that would then be against the
Age Discrimination Policies.
We have a Physical Fitness Advisor on each of our Watches and we actively
encourage all personnel to use our Gym and the services of our advisors, to
date this does seem to be working and we have only 2 of our personnel on
temporary restricted duties because of fitness issues, ( these 2
firefighters informed us of their problem, still no word from the doctor)
we have found out, however that before we instigated the Gym and the
Fitness Advisors ( 3 years ago ) there were 31 personnel who were not
reaching the require fitness levels. So this does seem to work.
I do belive that when firefighters reach the age of 60 years it is time to
either retire or to find alternitive work, I know that there are some
people of 60 plus who are extremely fit, however it is not specifically
what our firefighters do it is what they may have to do. I have been able
to re deploy some of my older firefighters into my Fire Safety Department,
but am now facing the same problems that Jeremy mentioned, that of an
ageing workforce, one of the reasons for this is pensions whilst their
occupational pension is payable at 60 their Old age Pension is not payable
until 65, so we now have people who want or need to work these 5 years
before they feel financially secure enough to retire.
I will keep you informed of the changes to the National Medical Standards
used by all Local Authority Fire & Rescue Services. As can be seen from the
above I do not have an answer to this problems, however we must all strive
for changes in this area to protect our Services and companies and more
importantly our personnel.
Third Email:
I would like to pick up on the point that Doctors "Won't tell me"
There are two types of doctors [I can only talk about the UK experience]
- General Practitioner doctors in the NHS give their allegiance to their patients with total confidentiality. They will probably tell Co Management or Personnel nothing. -other than to send in a sick note!
- Occupational Health doctors work for your company / organisation. As a manager or supervisor you CAN ask your OH Dr if someone is fit to work against an identified Job Description. They can talk to the patient's Dr. They will then say Yes or No to you.
If No, they will not tell you medically why, but you may be able to read between the lines.
In this case you, HR and the OH Dr can seek a way forward by offering other JDs until a suitable one is found , or not.
Unfortunaly if someone is not capable and there is no other suitable job , then dismissal, redundancy or medical retirement (pension fund rules?) may be considered.
Fourth Email:
Attached is a study conducted in the US, which forms the basis for a scheme here in Germany called "Fit for fire fighting".
BCS Brochure 0607
BCS How Test
BCS The Test
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