On 08/02/07, Paul Bromley <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> If I have to do certification by PHYSICALLY
> seeing the patient all of the time as Fay suggests, then I can see a
> number of 2 minute consultations at the end of surgery - purely for
> certification! Talk about a waste of time.
This is how it was in the 50s and 60s, I believe. Some doctors would
set aside a whole surgery for issuing sicknotes.
Things changed a few years ago. Until then employers could claim all
sickness benefit back from the DSS, so the Med3 paperwork had to be in
order. Now employers have to pay sickness benefit themselves for the
first six months, so during that period the Med3 is just a "note from
the doctor" excusing the patient from work.
I don't suppose an employer is likely to complain to the GMC about the
exact method the GP used to determine whether their employee was unfit
for work.
Dictionary definitions of "examine" include words like inquiry,
investigation, questions, interrogation. Are the GMC really so stuffy
that they would consider an argument that under some circumstances
such an examination could be done verbally to be colossal cheek from a
barrack room lawyer, and come down even more heavily on the impudent
young whippersnapper? How very James Robertson Justice!
--
Michael Leuty
Nottingham, UK
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