Pilot scheme will ask GPs to give more detail in sickness certificates

doi:10.1136/bmj.39503.348032.DB

BMJ 2008;336:468 (1 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39503.348032.DB

News

Pilot scheme will ask GPs to give more detail in sickness certificates

Adrian O’Dowd

¹ London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Doctors could be asked to advise employers on what kind of workcan be done by staff members who are off sick, the governmenthas announced.

The health secretary, Alan Johnson, is keen to change what hehas called the United Kingdom’s "sick note culture" intoa "well note culture," but doctors’ leaders say that itshould not be for GPs to police people over their capabilityto work.

Carol Black, the government’s national director for healthand work, will soon publish her review of the health of theworking age population.

In the meantime Mr Johnson has previewed some of the proposals,including testing of a new sickness certificate designed tobe easier for GPs to complete and to provide more advice topatients and employers.

Mr Johnson, speaking at a British Heart Foundation conferencein London last week, said, "Incapacity benefit should not bea one way street . . . [Full text of this article]

Add to CiteULike CiteULike Add to Complore Complore Add to Connotea Connotea Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us Add to Digg Digg Add to Reddit Reddit Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon Add to Technorati Technorati What's this?