What’s changed for the DOccMed in 2026–27

Nine things matter for anyone sitting the DOccMed in November 2026 or in 2027: Statutory Sick Pay rules that changed on 6 April 2026; the Faculty’s Ethics Guidance 9th edition, free online since 22 May 2026; new Faculty guidance on alcohol and substance misuse; HSE’s 2024/25 statistics; the DVLA’s diabetes rules for bus and lorry drivers on insulin; the Green Book’s hepatitis B testing advice; the harassment duty that changes on 30 October 2026; the July 2024 portfolio template and November 2025 oral guidance, for anyone working from older advice; and a Faculty reading list that still names older editions. For each, here is what changed and why it matters. Checked against fom.ac.uk, gov.uk, acas.org.uk and hse.gov.uk on 29 September 2026.

Statutory Sick Pay from 6 April 2026

Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, SSP is paid from the first full day of sickness absence, with no waiting days. The lower earnings limit has gone. The weekly rate is the lower of £123.25 (2026/27) or 80% of average weekly earnings, for up to 28 weeks (Acas). An employee qualifies after one full working day off sick. Linked spells must each last at least one full working day and be 8 weeks or less apart (GOV.UK).

Why it matters: sickness absence sits in the clinical part of the syllabus. Textbooks and question banks written before April 2026 still teach waiting days and the lower earnings limit, so if a source says SSP needs a minimum level of earnings or starts after waiting days, it predates the change. The fit note rules did not change in 2026.

FOM Ethics Guidance, 9th edition

On 22 May 2026 the Faculty made the 9th edition of Ethics Guidance for Occupational Health Practice free to read online. Its recommended reading list still names the 8th edition (2018).

Why it matters: ethics is part of the syllabus’s introductory module and reaches every part of the exam. The portfolio has a consent and communication section and an other issues section covering ethics, confidentiality, data protection and role conflict (2 marks each). In the oral you may need to defend how you handled them. Read the current edition alongside the GMC’s confidentiality guidance, under which disclosure without consent is limited to the grounds the GMC sets out — for example where the law requires it or a statutory process permits or approves it, where it can be justified in the public interest (such as a risk to others or the prevention of serious crime), or where a patient lacks capacity and disclosure is of overall benefit to them.

FOM guidance on alcohol and substance misuse

On 22 May 2026 the Faculty published Guidance on Alcohol and Substance Misuse in the Working Environment, which it describes as a new edition. It is written for employers and occupational health professionals and combines a summary of employers’ legal responsibilities with a consensus on appropriate approaches. The reading list still names the Faculty’s 2006 Guidance on Alcohol and Drug Misuse in the Workplace.

Why it matters: alcohol and drugs at work are on the Faculty’s own reading list. A textbook chapter or a question written from the 2006 guidance may not match the current consensus. If your portfolio touches on alcohol or drugs, cite the 2026 edition.

HSE statistics for 2024/25

HSE’s latest figures for Great Britain, for 2024/25: 1.9 million workers with work-related ill health; 964,000 with stress, depression or anxiety (about 52% of cases), accounting for 22.1 million working days lost; and 511,000 with musculoskeletal disorders (about 27%). In total 40.1 million working days were lost to work-related illness and workplace injury (HSE key figures).

Why it matters: stress, depression or anxiety is the largest category and musculoskeletal disorders the second, the kind of ranking a statement question can test. The figures also give national context for the hazards in your workplace report. HSE updates them every year, so check the year of any statistic you quote.

DVLA diabetes rules for bus and lorry drivers

The DVLA updated its diabetes guidance on 7 November 2025. Group 2 (bus and lorry) drivers on insulin now need glucose records for the previous 4 weeks stored on a meter’s memory, not three months. They test at least twice daily, including on days off, at the start of the first journey and at least every 2 hours while driving. Continuous glucose monitoring is now accepted if the driver also carries a finger-prick meter as a back-up (DVLA).

Why it matters: fitness to drive sits in the fitness-for-work part of the syllabus and older sources still quote three months of records.

Hepatitis B antibody testing

Chapter 18 of the Green Book was last updated on 24 February 2026 (that update concerned eligibility for targeted vaccination; the antibody-testing advice below is the chapter’s current position). Anti-HBs is checked one to two months after the primary course. At 100 mIU/mL or more nothing further is needed. Between 10 and 100 mIU/mL the worker has one more dose of vaccine, with no further antibody test or booster if immunocompetent. Below 10 mIU/mL they are tested for markers of infection, given a repeat course and retested; persistent non-responders need hepatitis B immunoglobulin after an exposure (Green Book). Non-responders may do exposure-prone procedures only if shown to be non-infectious, with a yearly surface antigen test (UKHSA, April 2024).

Why it matters: older sources say to test one to four months after the course and to retest after a booster.

The harassment duty from 30 October 2026

Since 26 October 2024 employers have had to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees. From 30 October 2026 the Employment Rights Act 2025 makes this all reasonable steps and makes employers liable for harassment of their employees by third parties (business.gov.uk).

Why it matters: the change comes into force just before the November 2026 paper, so check which version a source describes.

The portfolio template and oral guidance

The portfolio must be on the Faculty’s July 2024 template. The template says only its most current version will be accepted and that any deviation from it will lead to automatic failure of the portfolio section, yet older copies still circulate online. The section-by-section guide has its rules and marks.

The oral follows the Faculty’s November 2025 guidance: MS Teams; passport or driving licence only; a 360-degree room scan; no notes, books, smart devices, second monitors or background effects; a 5-minute limit to reconnect before the exam is void, with no refund. See the oral on MS Teams.

Why it matters: these are pass-or-fail rules, not matters of style. Advice written for an older template or before the current oral guidance may be wrong on details that cost the whole portfolio or the whole oral.

A reading list with older editions

The Faculty’s recommended reading list was last updated on 13 June 2022. It still names the Oxford Handbook of Occupational Health 2nd edition (2013), Fitness for Work 5th edition (2013), Pocket Consultant: Occupational Health 5th edition (2006) and the Faculty’s Ethics Guidance 8th edition (2018). The current editions are the Oxford Handbook 3rd edition (2022), Fitness for Work 6th edition (2019), Pocket Consultant 6th edition (2022) and Ethics Guidance 9th edition.

Why it matters: the current textbook editions all predate the April 2026 SSP changes. The 2013 editions also predate the 2022 fit note changes. Use the books for principles and the official pages for anything that has changed. The 2026 reading list has the details.

How this fits the platform

The DOccMed package has a question bank organised by twelve topics, three fixed 80-question papers, a random timed mock and a viva trainer. The revision guide and the free Core Tools, a set of interactive revision tools, sit alongside it. Free sample questions are on the package page.

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