A five-year study comparing early retirements on medical grounds in ambulance personnel with those in other groups of health service staff - Part I: Incidences of retirements

The objective of this study was to compare morbidity between ambulance staff and other groups of health service workers, to facilitate planning of occupational health (OH) services. A retrospective study of employees of The Eastern Health and Social Services Board, Northern Ireland was conducted. Subjects were 181 men and 353 women assessed at OH between 1988-92 and found eligible (on the basis of permanent incapacity) to apply for early retirement on medical grounds (EROMG). Ambulance personnel showed a high rate of EROMG (55.9/1,000 per annum) both compared with previous ambulance studies (5.7-22.5/1,000), and with other groups in the present study (manual 24.8/1,000, nursing 5.9/1,000 and non-manual 2.6/1,000). Indirect standardization was used to correct for age-sex differences between groups, by deriving standardized early retirement ratios (SERR). Ambulance and manual staff showed high SERRs (636, CI = 558-714 and 164, CI = 149-179), whereas nursing and non-manual staff showed low SERRs (91, CI = 75-107 and 38, CI = 25-52), (all results except that for nursing staff being significant at p < 0.001). There is evidence that ambulance staff are a group with high morbidity, and thus deserving of particular attention in terms of preventative and health promotional activities. Other issues requiring consideration in relation to ambulance staff are redeployment and lowering of the retirement age.