GPs to lose power to hand out sick notes

Last month government minister Mel Stride claimed that mental health culture has 'gone too far', and Matthew Pariss descibed mental ill health as a 'growing burden on our economy'. Add this to todays statement and what we have is a rising backlash against people suffering mental health issues that is both saddening and concerning. This trend overlooks the reasons behind increases in sickness figures. The cost of living crisis, economic uncertainty, global threats - these factors cause ongoing anxiety, fear and despair and have a significant impact on health and wellbeing. Today's claims put the blame firmly at the door of the most vulnberable in our society, papering over the damaging effects of a poliitcal and economoc system that makes it harder and harder for normal peole to meet their basic needs. This failure to recognise the health impacts of sociopolitical factors reveals that the people behind the claims are neither health experts nor among those most affected.

I currently work with GP surgeries as part of an intiative to improve their processes and from my experience, this news will both hearten and disappoint them.

In reality, GPs do not have the time or energy to question patients about their requests for sick notes and prefer to priortise other patients e.g. those that need appointments. Many GPs that I come in contact with simply 'process' sick note requests in their rare admin sessions. It is therefore not surprising that the numbers of people 'off sick' have dramatically increased with people are taking the easy short-term option that often has greater negative consequences in the longer-term.

However, most GPs will also be disappointed as they take their roles very seriously and will see this as a consequence of the fundamental issues affecting the NHS - aging population, budgets that can never be big enough, out of date and unweldy processes, poor leadership and management and a focus on treatment rather than prevention.

As with many things this is a nuanced situation.
People requesting sick notes is one of the big time constraints on GP workload. However, in my 20 years’ experience most people are not trying to pull a fast one and are genuinely unwell – whether that be back pain, anxiety or whatever. To go into work would further exacerbate their symptoms worsening their condition and making long term absence more likely.
Moreover, their GP is the person who knows them best and can accurately decide if they ned time off.
Finally the sick notes have provision to make recommendations such as altered hours/amended duties still allowing the pt to go to work but in slightly modified circumstances.
This is just another way to castigate the least well off in society

This is a double-edged sword. As someone who has processed sickness absences over the last three decades, I have seen lots of genuine requests but also lots of fake sickness leaves, and employment law dictates how you deal with these.

Fake mental health sick leave requests are particularly despicable and is the ultimate disrespect to all the people who genuinely struggle with their mental health.

All employers want happy and healthy employees, but it can be onerous when GPs repeatedly sign off with no questioning or treating of the patient. At the heart of this is the burden of time pressure on GPs, coupled with a lack of readily available mental health services that people can access independently.

For long term sick leave, the 26 weeks an employer needs to absorb has to be handled carefully. At 26 weeks+ an employee is handed over to DWP, where they get treated with short shrift. This is a sharp contrast with how employment law dictates you deal with someone. The system is broken.

When I read this earlier this morning, I did wonder if it's not that there is a huge spike in cases, more that there is a backlog that has been created due to lack of funding for the resources to deal with the cases we have. Many people have reported huge delays in accessing mental health support, so if you are too ill to work, but the waiting list for the treatment you need is now well over a year, is it any surprise that we're in the situation we are in? One small point that may be of help to some, is that many insurance companies give free access to mental health professionals, physiotherapists, and even remote GP services for anyone that holds one of their life, critical illness, or income protection policies, and this support is available just for being a policy holder. Whist it would be better if people could access these services via their GP, if you need help and cannot wait for NHS support, it is a valuable option worth exploring.

Responding to this news is like walking barefoot on shards of glass. On the one side, you would think that GPs could be relied on to not issue sickness notes to patients who aren't able to demonstrate a real underlying condition and this government meddling is bound to upset the reliable Doctors across the UK. Especially at times when GP practices are working in apparent chaos at the moment. However, speaking from the side of small businesses it's clear that a lot of employers suffer terribly with the cost and disruption from employees who deem themselves as "entitled" to take paid time off from work for minor ailments frequently. I can remember a culture in a FTSE 100 company I worked for that you got 5 weeks holiday entitlement and 4 weeks sickness per annum. The truth was of course that no such sick allowance applied however new employees were told by colleagues to adhere to this system to not focus employers on the workers following this system, an appalling state of affairs.