I work in the same type of place in England (not as medical staff, but I make very important computer systems work and the telephones that are used 24/7 to communicate with other similar nursing homes, our health authorities and the Ambulance Service). As I mentioned I had to do the same check and had admitted to my previous drugs use; but it hasn’t stopped me getting the job and being promoted twice.
In England a medical test has to be for either certain medical conditions or drug use and the health service must tell you what it is for, and sharing these details with employers can only be done under certain conditions. That applies for everyone, children, adults, old people. I had to have one a few years ago after what was thankfully a “minor” health scare; they asked me about my alcohol use (I did drink then) but did not check my urine for drugs, the tests were for other medical conditions my age group can get and they did not contact me to warn me there was anything badly wrong with me and I’m still alive 😉
The methods used to share the results are sometimes “old fashioned” but more secure in many ways as those needing the info must have physical access to locked filing cabinets and there may be CCTV and other monitoring equipment in those areas. I often have to haul those cabinets and their contents and set up the CCTV; and by the end of that I often wish the whole damn lot was scanned on computers like in other nations but at the same time can see why this has been done.
it is highly illegal in the UK for an employer to use a “drugs test” to work out if a young woman is pregnant and then deny her a job, or to sack a young woman who is pregnant; indeed one employer got fined thousands of pounds for doing that very recently.
One thing I’d beware of is that tests used in Europe are sometimes more stringent; trying to “cheat” them by diluting the contents of your urine might look suspicious or even make it seem like you have something badly wrong with your internal organs which triggers off a health service alert and the investigation goes deeper (not even because the health service really wants to work as private security guard for private companies; but they genuinely think your health is at risk).
