While a high proportion of respondents managed to return to their place of work 20% were not able to do so. The duration of sick leave absence was associated with more difficulties in returning to work. Despite the fact that males were more likely than females to take no sick leave, they were more likely to take longer periods of absence when they did (18 months and over). In addition, the length of sick leave was greatest in the most economically deprived group, and in those survivors of cancer diagnosis and treatment who did not receive surgery.

Our results highlight the importance of collecting information on incident cases and denominators, to allow calculation of occupational disease rates. The higher incidence of mental illness (compared with musculoskeletal and skin disorders) in this employment sector merits further investigation.

For future audits, we recommend having two external auditors and seek to demonstrate a high degree of agreement between observers by conducting a reproducibility exercise. Future Faculty guidelines should emphasize documentation of the assessment and perhaps consider assessment tools to improve documentation.

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