23rd April 2008
Government plans to replace the sick note with a “well note” have received a mixed reaction. Health secretary Alan Johnson said he wants doctors to issue the well notes which would state what tasks a worker can perform, instead of certificates automatically signing them off.
The proposal, to be piloted in the summer, will require GPs to offer patients advice about what they can do to get fit for work.
Katja Hall, the CBI's head of employment & employee relations, welcomed the announcement.
“Sick notes are outdated, inflexible, and in need of an overhaul. They focus on symptoms instead of consequences, and sign patients off for rigid and often arbitrary stretches of time.”
“As evidence grows that work can be beneficial to health, the emphasis must move from what people cannot do to what they are able to do. This will help a person discuss with their employer and doctor how they might make a phased return to work.”
But doctors' leaders say they are concerned about the proposals. Dr Peter Holden of the BMA‘s GP Committee said, “Confirming that a patient is unwell is very different from making a judgement on whether someone is well enough to do their job. This may be determined by a host of other non-medical factors concerning the equipment they are using or the physical environment in which they work. GPs should not be there to police the system.”
And TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said the Government was taking the wrong approach.
“Rather than focus on sick notes, the government should be looking at how to give people who have been off for some time the right to return to work on a phased or reduced basis without losing all their benefits straight away, improve access to rehabilitation services, and invest more in preventing people from becoming ill at work in the first place,”
The CBI estimates that 175 million working days are lost to ill health every year, with around 2.7 million people on incapacity benefit. Those who are on incapacity benefit for one year are likely to stay there for eight. Once they have been on the benefit for two years or more, they are more likely to die or retire than ever work again.
Mr Johnson said too many people ended up drifting on to incapacity benefit via the sick note system.
“If we can stop that and help people back into work that is a good thing. That is what we are trying to do and I don't think the current sick note system helps with that,”.
