EK/GCAA Medicals

[Kapitanleutnant]

Why is it that these doctors want to perform so many extra tests on you for no real known reason when you go in for your flight physical??? Maybe I'm the only guy they do this to.

If I or anyone meets the requirements for a GCAA flight physical, then darn it, we're entitled to the flight physical certificate period. It's a simple concept and we don't go there for things like getting blood work, treadmill tests, and other wasteful and COSTLY referrals. There's no requirement for that stuff to get a flight physical!

If there are other issues, I would offer we can come in to see a doctor on our own time.

Give me the medical certificate if I pass the GCAA REQUIREMENTS!!!!

Thanks for letting me vent…. :-)

Kap

[GoreTex]

just don't do the extra stuff, works fine, they have to explain to JC why they don't give you a medical

[Payscale]

Try and refuse a referral to a specialist...why would you do that anyway. Its your health..

[Desdihold]

These doctors are blood hounds going beyond what is required by the GCAA.
They are the quickest way for you to lose your job here.

They are primarily following the company line and they are not their for your benefit when you go in for a GCAA medical.

The doctors are now reviewing how many times you called in sick during the year.

We do have good do doctors but they are few and Far between.

[Kapitanleutnant]

@ Gortex: Sent you a PM.

@ DesdiHold:

Couldn't agree more, Desdi!!

Seems to be more and more difficult to get the doctor we prefer or have listed as our primary physician. Doesn't seem to make any difference lately.

Kap

[mutt]

I'm curious, are you permitted to get your medical outside EK medical services?

[Panther 88]

Simple....NO. Not any more.

[Payscale]

Which test do they do that are not required can object to? I honestly have no clue

[Trader]

Well, it is obviously variable- my last medical the Doctor didn't want to hear about anything! He even said so--just finish the medical, other issues could be brought up at another appointment.

[Kapitanleutnant]

Trader. ...

That's exactly how it should be....
Wish all the doctors had that perception.

Over the years I've had to do things like extra blood work.... for no reason, and all other requirements met. It was just because one particular doctor thought he'd be pro active in case the gcaa wanted this info! Really!?!? I've had to go do a stress ECG test for no reason while again, all other indicators said I passed the requirements. Again another doctor trying to be proactive before being queried by the gcaa. Then another time it was a sleep study for being 1.5 kilos over a magic bmi number even though this is not a requirement for a gcaa medical. Just tired of jumping thru unnecessary hoops. If I qualify, I'm entitled to the medical..... no questions.

This is why I have an issue with some of these doctors.

[777boyindubai]

The doctors work to a required standard. This standard is mandated from the GCAA for the pilots' medicals not EK.

K you normally write some great posts. This is not one of them. The GCAA mandate the BMI. If you are over 30 then no medical. It is a GCAA ruling. If the docs pass you and are audited, they will lose their licence.

The doctors go through 10 plus years of training and have to pass an AME course. I think that qualifies them to interpret the GCAA rulings better than pilots. I guess you wouldn't like to be told how to fly your plane if one of the docs googled it??

The GCAA are cracking down on AME's left right and centre. An external AME Dr. RJ just lost his AME licence.

The docs are covering their asses. Just as the pilots do. Given the docs are undermanned, with morale lower than a snake's belly, and are incredibly busy, I really can't see them ordering extra tests.

Unless they need to.

Don't mean to offend. They don't have an easy job.

Happy landings

[falconeasydriver]

The GCAA mandate the BMI. If you are over 30 then no medical

My BMI is over 30…I have a medical, it appears you are talking out of your posterior.

[777boyindubai]

Falcon.

What a charmer. If your BMI is over 30, you are required to do various blood tests and get seen by the clinic every 3 months to get your weight down.

Hardly a ringing endorsement of your health!

So yes, you do get a licence, I stand corrected.

But what about your health?

I won't stoop to your level of literary ignorance.

Best wishes

[falconeasydriver]

Flyboy,

Me, height 193 cm, weight 114kg, BP (assessed 112/75) 46' chest, 35' waist. I bench 135kg, and squat 220kg. Body fat % assessed at 12%. My peak flow and cardio vascular capacity better than someone 20 years younger, oh yeah and I'm a vegetarian.
The BMI assessment is a flawed instrument…my EASA medical takes 5 minutes:hmm:

[777boyindubai]

Thanks for the stats.

I didn't say I agree with the BMI of 30 thing. I don't for what it is worth.

It is a blunt instrument. It needs to be considered with other data.

But that is the rule here.

So, the AME's follow it.

Well done on the good health!

[Kapitanleutnant]

777Boy…

Ya, you're not quite right on this one. The point is that the flight physical should only be based on those requirements and those alone. I agree that we should all be "healthy" but… my point is I should be able to see the doctor when I'm not feeling well or think there's a problem on my own, not during the flight physical.

I go to the flight physical for just that.. the GCAA flight physical. Nothing else. If I have aches and pains I'll go to the doctor on my own time.

My whole and ONLY point is this: If I pass the requirements, I should get my medical and there are doctors here who do not do that. It's simply wrong.

That's all I'm saying guys…. If I meet the requirements, show me the medical!
K

[777boyindubai]

K,

With you all the way.

Only the docs and the GCAA know the rules. We don't

Maybe they do other tests as a mandatory requirement. I have heard that is the case. Like I said previously it is the CYA syndrome.

We all know about our friend who does the sleep apnea thing.....

Good health to all.

[BLOGGSON]

I thought they had quietly dropped the fat b@stard BMI thing anyway.

[Fart Master]

Hell no, I enjoy my 3 monthly visit, booked to coincide with a visit to HQ anyway and watch the nurse look apologetic when she tells me I haven't lost any weight at which point I gently inform her that some of us are skinny, some of us are in the middle and some of us are overweight. That's life and nothing the clinic does will change that fact...

[Aircav]

Actually the GCAA BMI limit is 35, 30 coupled with the 3 monthly visits is an EK requirement which should have no bearing on the GCAA medical:=

[Kapitanleutnant]

Fartmaster…. That's funny!! One of those "priceless" looks on their face!!

Aircav…. That's exactly right… and is the whole gist of my original post.

Actually I didn't even mean to involve the BMI thing on my first post as I've only had the issue once in my career here. But even the many times I've been below the BMI, I've still had to go take this test and that test and my medical was essentially held ransom which is simply BS!!

Kap

[Mrs Mangels]

You do have some rights, piss poor as they are, but they're planted deep down in the dark depths of the group world website. Obviously positioned for strategic purposes, but either read them or print them out for your next medical and you'll get nothing more than a bend over and cough.
:ok:

[glofish]

Any hint or guide though that underbrush? (thanks!!)

[Kapitanleutnant]

Wow… I hadn't heard that they were getting pressure from Fleet on this. But why would this surprise me at this outfit.

You're right, it is none of the doctors business about our so called "productivity". Wonder how the boys are handling that one?

It just keeps getting better and better……

K

[777boyindubai]

So. On the one hand, the docs are trying to fail pilots by doing extra tests. But then they are cooperating with fleet to get you to work when you are not well? What am I missing here?

If you feel so strongly, write to FR. Write to the GCAA. Never heard of the docs sending us back to work unwell due to fleet. Their moral is pants. They won't go the extra millimetre for the company. Let alone the mile.

A rumour site, yes. Perhaps substantiate the rumour!!

[donpizmeov]

"Their moral is pants"

Are we talking frilly French nicker type, or those huge granny pants? I am just trying to gain a better understanding of the whole situation. No perversion at all....honest.


the Don

[777boyindubai]

LOL Don,

Sorry I must be fatigued! I will go to the clinic. Hopefully they will test my prostate.... as they do ALL these unnecessary tests....

I can enjoy laughing at myself unlike a few other posters here.

I did mean morale.

Happy Landings

[Dropp the Pilot]

The only "moral" pants would be something along the line of a chastity belt. Speaking personally, I am only interested in "immoral" pants.

Worn by women.

[halas]

Not sure that all the Docs are like you describe Kap.

Have had a different Dr every year for 12 years. And that includes that period where we had to go twice a year.

Only one has been a pain in the ar$e with lectures and rants. All the others have been very good and brief.

A retired director of AME's in Oz has recently been quite critical of how the department there is cracking down on some silly areas that are popular at the time.
He argues that pilots self certify every time they turn up for work, that they are fit to fly. Yet in one 30 minute appointment, once a year, with an AME can have them lose their medical for some minor and correctable ailment.

I think most Dr's here are quite pragmatic in their view of how it all works.
And l'm not sure about any pressure from fleet.

Have a look on the portal under medical and read the Dr's bios and make up your own mind.

halas

[Trader]

I agree..the docs, for the most part, are excellent. Especially considering how understaffed they and the fact that they are just as caught in the big machine as everyone else.

The 'system' is broken but the Doctors themselves do a great job considering!

[rather be sailing]

You can download CAAP 19 Aeromedical from the GCAA website. 193 pages of all the requirements for a medical including what tests need to be done or not.

I know several guys who take a copy along with them and place it on the desk to refer to during the medical and politely decline non-required tests :ok:

[awqward]

As a private pilot with current Class 2 EASA, FAA and CASA medicals and a long expired GCAA medical I recently went to a local AME who has all those certifications primarily to renew my FAA and EASA medicals (another year to go on my CASA).... I thought for an extra 250 Dhs I would renew my GCAA medical since my GCAA PPL is still valid...even though private flying here is now very limited to LSAs only it seems.... Anyway I left it 1 month too late for a renewal so I was told it would be treated as an initial (requiring a chest X-ray and drug screening)....so far so bad....then I was told that the GCAA rules changed in Sept this year and as a result since I was 1. over 50, 2. Male and 3. have a neck size of 43cm I would need to take a sleep study.... The AME referred to the new rules and said they make no distinction between classes of medical....so the pilot a 4 seat piston single in private operations is treated the same as an A380 captain....needless to say I declined to proceed and left with my new FAA and EASA medicals .... The bit that got my goat was that the GCAA apparently were trying to align their medicals with EASA....and yet I passed my EASA with flying colours!