GPs will be urged to refer patients to life coaches instead of calling them off sick

GPs could be urged to refer Britons to life coaches rather than automatically calling them off sick, it was claimed today.

Ministers hope the planned shake-up can help tackle the UK’s sick note crisis, with a record 2.5 million people now on long-term sick leave.

Fit notes – distributed by doctors, physiotherapists and pharmacists – are currently being issued to patients who have been ill for more than a week.

Patients are either declared ‘unable to work’, or their employer is told that they are ‘possibly fit to work’, subject to job or workplace adjustments. For example, this could be holding on to llimited hours or taking on various tasks.

But an option currently being considered by Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) officials may add an additional option to the note, The times reports.

In June 2022, there were just 27,558 full-time equivalent, fully qualified GPs working in England, 1.6 per cent fewer than in 2021. This was 5.3 per cent less than the more than 29,000 employed in June 2017.

Overall, 4 week waits have become more common over time, accounting for an increasing share of GP appointments, although levels peaked in late 2022, they have also remained high this year

This would allow GPs to automatically refer patients to support schemes or programs when they are classified as potentially able to work with the right help.

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, president of the Royal College of GPs, said the proposal was ‘deserving in principle’ and recognized that working could be ‘beneficial’ for patients.

But she said the doctors would decide on “an individual’s health and well-being, not meeting government targets to keep people in work.”

Under a ‘universal support program’, up to 50,000 people who are currently out of work due to mental health, debt or other issues can be referred to life coaches.

The scheme is already in place in 12 pilot areas across the UK, but officials accept that the fit notes system should not be officially updated across the country until the support schemes become more widely available.

A government source told The Times: ‘The general view is that equality of appreciation between mental and physical health, as well as what has happened with Covid, has led to more people calling in sick.’

They added: “It has led to a massive increase in the size of the welfare state.

‘No one is talking about cutting benefits, that would be politically disastrous, but we are looking closely at how we can encourage people to go back to work.’

According to data from the Office for National Statistics, a record 2.5 million people were out of work due to long-term illness in the first three months of the year.

This means that for every 13 employees, one person is unemployed because of their illness.

This is over 2 million in 2019, before the Covid pandemic hit.

The worrying trend was partly attributed to back and neck pain from working from home.

According to experts from the Office for National Statistics, an increase in mental health problems among young people and a long-term covid-19 were also among the factors behind the increase.

Mel Stride, Secretary of Work and Pensions, hopes reforms will help address the problem.

Under plans put forward by The Treasury and DWP earlier this year, it was claimed that GPs would be encouraged to issue fewer sick notes.

But the British Medical Association hit back at the “ridiculous” push, arguing that the move “undermines” doctors’ expertise and “endangers patients and the wider community.”