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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 **********************************************************************