Australia National Standard for Health Assessment of Rail Safety Workers 2024 2.7: Quality control: implement a formal, risk-based quality control system confirming that workers are correctly categorised, receive the assessments the Standard requires, that assessments are administered and conducted in accordance with the Standard by the operator and its health professionals, that fitness decisions are correctly interpreted and workers managed accordingly, and that privacy is maintained; scale it to organisational size and complexity, cover all categories with emphasis on Category 1 and 2 and on health professional experience and turnover, use audits, document reviews and consultation, and audit the points in Table 4 across categorisation, authorisation and management of health professionals, assessment performance and outcomes, and process management

What does 2.7 require?

Every rail transport operator implements a formal system of quality control to ensure rail safety workers are appropriately categorised, receive health assessments as the Standard requires, that assessments are administered and managed in accordance with the Standard within the organisation and by its Authorised Health Professionals, and that the privacy of health information is maintained; where possible it also establishes that health professionals are correctly interpreting and applying the fitness for duty requirements and that workers are managed appropriately according to outcomes, supported by the Chief Medical Officer where one exists. The Standard does not prescribe the system, which depends on the nature, size, complexity and risk of the operation and may include internal or external audits (for example of the database to confirm assessments are scheduled and completed), document reviews against the Standard, and consultation and feedback with health professionals, administrators and workers. The system is risk-based: all categories are included with particular focus on Category 1 and 2 workers, review of health professionals considers turnover, the small numbers some assess and any routine Chief Medical Officer checks, and organisational complexity and the risk of drift from policy inform the schedule. Audit points include that all tasks are categorised by the Standard's method with documentation and review dates; that health professionals used are authorised, trained, hold current procedures and forms and communicate regularly; that assessments are timely, continuous, conducted and decided in accordance with the Standard with appropriate interaction with operator and worker; and that internal procedures exist, workers hold current certification, recall and monitoring systems identify due and overdue assessments and manage temporary certificates and unfit workers, reporting is timely and privacy is observed.