The Guide for Doctors IB204** produced by the Department of Works and Pensions
states this:
-----------------------------
Rules for the completion of form Med 3
Section 2
. You must examine the patient on the day, or the day before, you issue this
statement
(Note: Although a certificate can be issued to a patient's representative, this
does not override the necessity of seeing the patient on the day, or the day
before, a Med 3 or Med 4 is issued)
-----------------------------
This is quite clear - you MUST examine the patient, and as part of that
examination you must SEE the patient. Any doctor signing a Med3 without seeing
the patient is either committing fraud and risks the GMC (if the form is not
endorsed), or else is providing an invalid Med3 (if the form is endorsed as a
telephone consultation). As we are obliged to complete these forms for patients
in our Terms of Service/Contract, refusal to provide a valid Med3 for an
employer or the DWP could invite an undefendable complaint to the GMC.
As Fay has said - we have to do it, and we just have to live with it as part of
our practice (unless we as a profession get the regulations changed)
Laurie Miles
** http://www.dwp.gov.uk/medical/guides_detailed.asp#IB204
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