BMJ  2008;336:631 (22 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39524.523403.DB (published 18 March 2008)

News

Report calls for shake up in management of sick notes

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

GPs would be able to refer patients who have been signed off sick to a "fit for work" multidisciplinary team, under radical new plans designed to overhaul attitudes to occupational health and reverse Britain’s "sick note culture."

An estimated 175 million working days were lost to illness in the United Kingdom in 2006. In England, the annual cost of sick leave and worklessness added up to more than £100bn (130bn; $200bn)more than the current annual NHS budget for England and Wales.

Under the new plans, drawn up by Carol Black, the UK’s national director for health and work, occupational health would also be brought into mainstream health care and its academic base and profile bolstered.

The fit for work teams, based in primary care, would provide rapid early treatment in a bid to prevent the slide into long term sick leave and incapacity benefit. The teams would follow . . . [Full text of this article]

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