Did anyone else see the article in (i think) Mondays Evening Standard (London Paper) about the results of research into Dr's views on "well notes".
I have only managed to find the following, but suspect there is more:
GPs are not, and will not become, the police of the benefits system. Our duty is to work for the benefit of our patients.
Work is, despite what it feels like at the end of a long day, good for us. Successive governments have striven to curtail the number of people on benefits related to ill-health. This has often been an unsuccessful battle, with claimants being shifted around the system, frequently without real benefit to them.
One thing has been consistent: it is always GPs’ fault for signing too many people on the sick. And so we have the latest idea, for us all to issue well notes.
This concept can only have been dreamt up by people who spend their time advising on how to run general practice rather than actually doing it. Asking GPs, who spend hours each week issuing sick notes, would have been far too obvious, and would not have given the desired answer.
As GPs we are trained as specialist generalists to work with our patients to help them achieve the best possible outcome for their symptoms or disease.
We have a duty to discuss with them the relationship between their work and their illness, and we can suggest the benefits of work, but we have no influence over the main protagonists in the battle for the Government to get people back to work – employers and the Department of Work and Pensions.
The key to getting people back to work early is a sympathetic employer who is able to assess the situation and act appropriately.
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