This rang a bell. I spoke to a civvy personnel/human resources person who confirmed that non-medically qualified civil servants are permitted to make medical decisions on civvy colleagues.
She also said that, because of this, some serious issues have arisen with duty of care. An example quoted was of a civvy's GP and consultants notifying MoD of his critical illness, but an unqualified personnel manager over-ruling them and advising the line manager to get him back to work. Line manager was a serving officer who responded that he preferred to accept the advice of qualified doctors, and sought advice as to who would now be responsible if, as the doctors' anticipated, the civvy fell ill at work. Good for him I say.
The implications are obvious. Litigation. Joking aside, a bit of a minefield this one.