(September 2008)

If you are having troubles with your employer understanding your condition, The Pituitary Foundation has a Proforma Letter that consultants can personalise with your health details and send to your employer.

First!  Have you already spoken to your consultant about providing a letter to your employer?

→If no:

1. Unfortunately, we do not give the Proforma Letter to patients but only directly to consultants.
2. Many consultants provide these letters for patients as a matter of course, so please do ask your consultant first.
3. We cannot provide consultants with the letter unless you have spoken to them beforehand*.  During this discussion, you can advise your consultant that The Pituitary Foundation has a Proforma Letter we can e-mail and the consultant can personalise in order to save him or her time.
   1. It is important to note that you will need to sign a letter giving approval to divulge your sensitive health data to your employer.  You will need to arrange this with your consultant, the secretary or the nurse.
4. Once you have spoken to the consultant, we will e-mail the Proforma Letter to the consultant or his/her secretary in Word format so it can be personalised for you and send it to your employer.
   1. Please ascertain the correct e-mail address so we can send this letter electronically.
   2. Or your consultant can contact The Foundation to provide the appropriate details
5. We will aim to e-mail the Proforma Letter to the consultant within 72 hours.

→If yes but the consultant has not followed through:

1. You can call the consultant or their secretary and explain The Pituitary Foundation has a Proforma Letter that they can e-mail to the consultant or the secretary in Word format.
2. This letter can then be personalised for you and sent to your employer.
   1. It is important to note that you will need to sign a letter giving approval to divulge your sensitive health data to your employer.  You will need to arrange this with your consultant, the secretary or the nurse.
3. Please ascertain the correct e-mail address so we can send this letter electronically.
4. Or your consultant can contact The Foundation with the appropriate details
5. We will aim to e-mail the Proforma Letter within 72 hours.

→If you are having significant difficulty with communication with your consultant, and are also having employment issues, we advise that we cannot get involved in individual cases.  However, you can discuss this with the Disablement Employment Advisor at your local Job Centre, or contact your local Citizen’s Advise Bureau at or ACAS at or call the ACAS helpline at 08457 47 47 47.

*We do not send uninvited Proforma Letters to consultants as we do not intervene in a patient/consultant relationship in any way except to provide Proforma Letters and this is only done if invited by the consultant and patient.

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