I think this is an excellent and important question. The person who is most
qualified to assess whether a patient is fit for work is (most of the time)
their own GP, IMHO - although I note a reply to a doctor in an FAQ on the DWP
site that emphasises that the clinician responsible for managing the patient's
condition is the one who should issue a certificate, making a nonsense of
patients who are told postop that they need 2 or 3 months of work, but then have
to come and see us for a sick note, because the hospital shirk their
certification duties.
We all know that there a significant minority of people who do not want to work,
and who wish to obtain sick notes so they don't have to appear to be seeking
work. We GPs IMHO are in the best position to ascertain whether or not they are
genuinely ill. I personally see certification as part of my social
responsibility as a doctor (as well as an obligation).
So, can anyone propose a cheaper and better method of providing and assuring
certification of sickness in our country? I say "cheaper", because no government
is ever going to accept a change in regulations that costs more.
Laurie Miles
> -----Original Message-----
> From: GP-UK [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Adrian Midgley
> Sent: 09 February 2007 1:37 pm
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [GP-UK] Archaic Certification - Time for major reform? (Was - Med
> certs when seeing Nurse Practitioner?)
>
> Paul Bromley wrote:
> > As I have said before though, this is archaic, we should not 'live
> > with it' and it does need changing. GPs as a group put up with too
> > many things without challenging why. If I have to start seeing the
> > ones that I do telephone consults for it is likely to take me a
> > further 5 hours or so per week - with little benefit to anyone.
> >
> > How do we go about getting this 'dark age' stuff changed?
>
> How would we like it to work instead?
>
> --
> A
**********************************************************************
Information in this message may contain confidential and privileged
information. If you are not the intended recipient please accept our
apologies; please do not disclose, copy or distribute information in
this e-mail or take any action in reliance on its contents: to do so
is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. Please inform us that this
message has gone astray before deleting it. Thank you for your
co-operation.
NHSmail is used daily by over 100,000 staff in the NHS. Over a million
messages are sent every day by the system. To find out why more and
more NHS personnel are switching to this NHS Connecting for Health
system please visit www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/nhsmail
**********************************************************************
|
