Fit notes or sick notes?

From now on, if you’re off work sick for seven days or more, you will receive a fit note instead of a sick note from your GP.

Absenteeism in the workplace to be combated with fit notes

The new government system replacing the sick note to monitor absenteeism in the workplace is called the ‘Statement of Fitness for Work’. The new style note features a new designation of ‘may be fit for work taking account of the following advice’ and goes on to specify what that advice is. This replaces the unspecified ‘may be fit for some work’ on the old style sick note.

Under the old sick note system, a GP had the power to sign someone off work for six months before the case was passed on to a benefits administrator. The maximum duration for which a medical statement can now be issued has been reduced from six months to three months during the first six months of a medical condition.

A thousand GPs have been trained by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) in how to complete the new forms. GPC chair Dr Laurence Buckman has also warned that GPs need to “be careful” when issuing the new fit notes.

He said: “GPs need to be careful they are not drawn into making comments they are not qualified to make, because, unlike occupational health doctors, they are not often in a position to know the details of the patient’s working conditions, neither do they have specialist knowledge of workplace hazards.”

The Government has predicted that the fit note will save the UK around £240bn in costs associated with absenteeism, and that it will also bring large savings to British taxpayers.

Elizabeth Tait, head of employment law at Irwin Mitchell lawyers in Manchester, said: “Every year there are 175 million working days lost through sick leave and absenteeism, with approximately three per cent of the working population off sick at any one time.

“This costs the taxpayer around £60bn each year, before factoring in the cost of the additional stresses and strains placed on employers and employees trying to cover for absent colleagues. Fit notes will reduce these costs by getting people back to some form of work as soon as they are able to return.”

The fit note will feature information from the employee’s doctor detailing how the patient’s medical condition impacts upon their ability to meet the demands of the role. It also allows the doctor to suggest what could be done to help the employee to resume work.

Tait added: “The emphasis will be on getting absent employees back to work in whatever capacity they are able to return, and there are a variety of ways this can be done.

“These include a gradual return (rather like a footballer who plays part of a game while building up match fitness levels), amended working hours, changes to the working environment itself or adjusting the activities expected of an employee.

“The objective of the change is not to force people to return to work before they are ready, but to encourage people who have been absent from the workplace to engage in more constructive dialogue with doctors and employers about how they could return to work. The emphasis will be on what employees can do, rather than what they can not.”