GPs working in the NHS are routinely writing sick notes for patients they have not seen, doctors claim.
GPs admit that ’95 percent’ of leave requests are forwarded without further assessment after an email request.
They also admit that sick notes are “rarely ever” rejected.
Some claim doctors are ‘too scared to refuse sick notes’ because they fear patients will become aggressive or write a negative review of the GP practice on social media.
“We don’t want to risk confrontation,” claimed a GP in northern England. ‘We often don’t know the patient. We just see the request in our inbox and okay.”
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In a major speech today, Rishi Sunak will warn that a wave of people falling ill with mental health problems is putting ‘unsustainable’ pressure on the welfare budget.
The revelation comes after Rishi Sunak today announced plans to strip GPs of the power to dismiss people from work.
The Prime Minister described the move as an attempt to tackle Britain’s ‘sick note culture’, which has caused a ‘spiraling’ social bill due to record numbers of people out of work due to illness.
The latest figures show that 2.8 million Britons are ‘economically inactive’ due to poor health. About half suffer from depression, anxiety and bad nerves.
Mr Sunak added that it is time to be ‘more honest about the risk of over-medicalising life’s everyday challenges and concerns’.
Labor criticized the plan, arguing that the government had ‘run out of ideas’. Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party, accused Sunak of ‘blaming people who are sick’.
However, many GPs welcomed the change, which would see sick notes – known in the NHS as fit notes – become the responsibility of teams of ‘specialist work and health professionals’.
“There needs to be a rethink about how we appropriately assess long-term or chronic illness,” says Professor Dame Clare Gerada, former president of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
‘We need to see if there are other ways to support people than signing a sick note.
‘It’s very difficult to say no. General practice is in free fall. We have fewer general practitioners, fewer specialists and we see far too many patients.
“You can’t expect us to judge them all. That doesn’t mean we don’t care, because we do. But it may be that we simply don’t have time to visit everyone who is sick.’
A GP source said many GPs were ‘deliriously happy’ with the move.
“Fit notes create conflict between GPs and their patients,” the source added.
“Doctors are often too afraid to refuse to sign patients out because they fear they will become angry.”
‘This can lead to the patient turning up to surgery and behaving aggressively towards the staff, or leaving a bad review online, damaging their reputation.
‘Most days I receive about four to five fit note requests. I only see the patient if they have developed a new condition, which is almost never the case because most people who ask for a note have long-term problems such as pain or anxiety.
“I would say about 95 percent of the fit notes I handle are handled without seeing the patient. And I rarely deny them. It’s not worth the stress.’
The Royal College of General Practitioners has been contacted for comment.