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Fit Notes Without Seeing a GP? Yep. Via the NHS App

ended 18. December 2025

Did you know some employees can request a fit note (sick note) through the NHS App as an admin request to their GP surgery, without necessarily booking a traditional appointment first?

Now, I’m not saying every fit note is dodgy. Plenty are genuine. But the process can feel a bit frictionless. And when that happens, it can leave employers stuck in limbo with vague notes, repeat extensions, and no real plan for support or a return to work.

The bit I’m most interested in is this: as policies and tech move faster than real life, are SMEs quietly carrying the risk here?

Over to you. I’d love to know what you’re seeing:

  • Did you know fit notes could be requested via the NHS App?
  • Have you noticed an increase in repeat fit notes, especially with minimal detail?
  • At what point do you say, “Right, we need Occupational Health involved now”?
  • Do your managers know what a “good” fit note should include and what to do when it doesn’t?
  • Would clearer fit notes (what they can do, not just what they can’t) make returns to work easier for your business?
  • Do you think this is helpful modern access, or is it making absence management harder?

Reply with your thoughts, and your best “you couldn’t make it up” examples.

1 responses from the Newspage community

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Kundan BhaduriVerified
Entrepreneur, Investor and Landlord at The Kushman Group
Fit notes have forever been used to evade work and watch daytime Tele while on SSP. This is not new. What is new however is this rampant and belligerent abuse of the system using automated processes which business owners can do absolutely nothing about. GP surgeries can run their own IT systems and processes all they like, but it does not fix the main problem that people will try and game the system.