**8.2 The role of the occupational medical practitioner (OMP) in ensuring the health and safety of employees in the mine**

Section 13 of MHSA outlines the legal requirement for all the mining organizations in SA to have an OMP either on a full-time or part-time basis. The OMP has legal duties and ethical duties when ensuring the overall health of the miners [12, 28, 46]. They play a major role in preventative medicine, determining the fitness and ensuring that every person in the mine (both the employer and the miners undergo medical surveillance. Medical surveillance is a scheduled program that includes medical examinations, conducting different tests depending on the job that the miner applied for such tests includes audiometry, spirometry, and vision screening. The purpose of medical surveillance is to ensure that all the miners are fit to perform their duties without endangering their health and

#### *Strategies to Enhance Compliance to Health and Safety Protocols within the South African… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100264*

safety. Medical problems that may arise due to workplace exposure are also identified [12, 28]. The occupational medical practitioner must ensure that the medical surveillance must be suitable and be planned in such a way that it affords the miners to gain knowledge that can be used to the information that employees can use to eradicate, govern and reduce risks and hazards related to health and safety [28, 46]. This is achieved through continuous health education providing information to the miners relaxed to their medical results e.g. education related to audiometric test results on hearing loss. Medical surveillance includes the following types of medical examinations:

• Pre-placement/baseline medical examination

It is a legal requirement for all mining organizations to conduct a pre-placement examination to be done before the miner can be appointed and placed in a job. The examination assists in the assessment of the miner's suitability for the position applied and also the work environment that will be exposed to. More importantly pre-employment is also done to ensure the safety of the miners and others ensuring that the new employee does not pose risk [28].

• Periodic medical examination

This examination is done every year or six months depending on the risk that the miner is exposed to. The examination I also done if the exposure risk increase or there is deterioration noted in the test results, when the miner is transferred from one department to another, after being involved in a serious injury or sickness [28].

• Exit medical examination

This examination is performed before the miners leave their current employment. It s a legal requirement for the miners to produce their exit fitness certificate to their new employer. The exit medical examination safeguards the organization against future medical claims. The records are kept for 40 years [28].
