Care for people who travel or relocate between cities

What the law asks of an employer whose people travel

In Great Britain, every employer has a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of the people it employs [1]. The regulations under that Act add a duty to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks people are exposed to while they are at work [2].

Travel is part of work, so it belongs in that assessment. The international standard on travel risk management, ISO 31030, guides organisations on managing the risks of travel, and it advises that an organisation’s general appetite for risk should not decide on its own whether a trip is appropriate for health or safety reasons [3].

The most serious offence has a limit worth knowing. Corporate manslaughter in the United Kingdom applies where the harm resulting in death is sustained in the United Kingdom [4], so the protection a person abroad relies on comes from the care and planning their employer puts around them [5].

What frequent travel does to health

In a study of the medical records of 13,057 people, those who travelled for work more than 20 nights a month were 2.61 times as likely to rate their own health as fair or poor as those who travelled less, and more likely to be obese [6].

A later study of the same population found that people travelling 21 or more nights a month were more likely to report trouble sleeping and symptoms of anxiety and depression, and its authors concluded that employers should help people stay well while they travel [7].

Illness on a trip is common. A review of the literature found that between 6% and 87% of travellers became ill across the studies it included, and between 43% and 79% of frequent travellers to some lower income countries did [8].

Why planning has become more important

Risk is changing faster than many firms can follow. In a survey of 860 business leaders responsible for their people’s safety, 43% said health risks had intensified in the past year, and 57% said new risks were emerging faster than they could deal with them [9].

The same survey found that only 35% were confident they could mobilise a team rapidly in a crisis [9]. A single number that reaches a doctor in the city the person is in is the most practical answer to that finding.

Before a trip or a move, a checklist for the person and the company

These are the steps that prevent most of the problems we see.

• A visit to a doctor or travel clinic four to eight weeks before departure, for vaccinations and advice [10]
• A letter from a doctor for any medicine that some countries restrict, carried with the medicine [10]
• Travel insurance declared with any condition the person has [10]
• Results, letters and a current medication list the person can open on their phone
• One number that reaches a doctor in the destination city, day and night
• For a relocation, a first appointment booked in the new city before the move

When someone relocates to a new city

A move breaks the thread of a person’s care at the moment they can least afford it. The doctor who knows them is in the old city, their records are in another system, and a family is settling into schools and a new language at the same time.

Care that is already in the new city keeps that thread whole. The same membership, the same concierge and the same record mean the first appointment in Singapore picks up where the last one in London ended.

How The Wellness for teams follows your people

The membership gives every person the same care in 13 cities, from London and Dubai to New York and Tokyo, with inpatient, outpatient and dental care, diagnostics and health programmes. A concierge arranges every appointment, answers within the hour, day and night, and follows a person into hospital and home again.

The company sees anonymised reporting only, under a data processing agreement, and leaders can start in one morning.