Employers
Independent Medical File Reviews
A service for non-work-related injury and illness.
When an employee is absent, underperforming, or unable to fulfil their role due to an injury or illness unrelated to work, employers face a difficult balancing act: supporting the individual while managing the operational and financial impact. Independent medical file review gives you objective clinical insight to navigate these situations fairly, lawfully, and effectively.
Clearer answers when an employee’s health and wellbeing is affecting their work.
Objective clinical opinion
An independent assessment of the medical evidence giving you a clear, unbiased picture of the employee’s condition, prognosis, and functional capacity.
Informed absence management
Move beyond self-reported illness and treating practitioner certificates with expert clinical opinion on whether absence is medically justified and for how long.
Supports reasonable adjustments
Understand precisely what duties an employee can and cannot perform, enabling fair and practical workplace modifications grounded in clinical evidence.
Genuine duty of care
Demonstrates that decisions about the employee’s role are grounded in medical evidence (not assumptions) fulfilling you duties of care obligations with confidence.
Defensible HR decisions
When performance management, role adjustment, or termination decisions involve a health factor independent clinical evidence provides a legally defensible foundation.
Manages income protection costs
For employers with funded income protection arrangements, file review helps ensure benefits are appropriate and that recovery and return to work remain the focus.
Equitable treatment of staff
A consistent, evidence-based process for managing health-related absence demonstrates fairness across your workforce and reduces the risk of discrimination claims.
Better employee outcomes
Identifying whether appropriate care is in place and supporting a structured return to work promotes genuine recovery, benefiting the employee as much as the organisation.
Why this situation is different to workers’ compensation
When an injury or illness is not work-related, there is no statutory claims framework to fall back on. Employers must navigate absence, capacity, and role suitability using their own employment obligations including anti-discrimination law, the duty of care, and enterprise or contractual arrangements. Without independent clinical advice, these decisions are often made on incomplete information, creating legal and operational risk. Independent file review provides the medical clarity needed to act with confidence.
Managing absence
Evidence over assumption
General practitioner certificates often provide limited clinical detail. Independent review of the full medical record gives a more complete and reliable picture of what the employee is actually experiencing and what they are genuinely capable of.
- Assess whether the level of absence is consistent with the documented condition
- Determine a realistic prognosis and expected timeline for recovery
- Identify whether the employee is receiving appropriate treatment
- Clarify functional limitations relevant to the specific demands of the role
- Flag cases where recovery may be prolonged by psychosocial or non-medical factors
Return to work and role fit
A structured path forward
Returning an employee to their role (or determining that this is no longer feasible) requires more than a medical clearance. Independent review provides the clinical foundation for a structured, defensible plan.
- Independent assessment of capacity for the employee’s pre-illness role
- Recommendations for modified duties, phased return, or alternative roles
- Guidance on reasonable adjustments consistent with medical evidence
- Opinion on whether the employee is permanently unable to perform their role
- Support for ill-health retirement or medical incapacity processes where relevant
When employers seek independent file review
Prolonged or recurring personal illness absence
Where an employee has been absent for weeks or months with a non-work condition, and the employer needs independent clinical opinion on prognosis, capacity, and whether further absence is medically warranted.
Mental health and psychological conditions
Where an employee is absent or underperforming due to a psychological condition, independent review provides an objective assessment of diagnosis, treatment, capacity, and return-to-work readiness, without requiring a formal examination.
Disability and reasonable adjustment decisions
When an employee’s condition may constitute a disability under anti-discrimination law, independent clinical opinion helps determine what adjustments are clinically supported and what the employer is reasonably required to provide.
Fitness for duty assessments
Where there are concerns about whether an employee can safely or effectively perform their role due to a health condition, file review provides an independent clinical basis for fitness-for-duty decisions.
Income protection and salary continuance reviews
For employers managing funded income protection benefits, independent file review confirms whether ongoing incapacity is medically supported and whether the employee is receiving appropriate treatment directed at return to work.
Employment dispute and unfair dismissal proceedings
Where a health condition is a factor in a disciplinary process, performance management, or termination, independent clinical opinion strengthens the evidentiary basis for the employer’s position.
A simple, structured process
Referral submitted
Your HR or people team submits the employee’s available medical records along with specific questions about capacity, prognosis, or fitness for duty.
Specialist matched to the case
We allocate a credentialed medical reviewer with the appropriate specialty, whether general medicine, psychiatry, occupational medicine, or another discipline relevant to the condition.
Independent review conducted
The reviewer analyses the complete medical record against current clinical guidelines, entirely independent of the treating practitioner and your organisation.
Clear, structured report delivered
A plain-language report directly addressing your questions is returned within agreed timeframes. It is suitable for HR decision-making, legal review, and tribunal use.
Informed, defensible decisions made
Use the findings to manage absence, plan a return to work, assess reasonable adjustments, or navigate employment proceedings, with independent clinical authority behind every decision.
Navigate health-related employment decisions with confidence.
Find out how independent medical file review can support your HR, people, and legal teams.