A new survey released today which reports that around nine million sicknotes requested from GPs each year are questionable or invalid has thrown new light on the debate of whether responsibility for sicknote certification should be transferred from GPs to employers.
Research from Croner, one of the UK’s leading providers of business information and advice, has revealed that almost three-quarters of the UK’s human resources professionals believe taking GPs out of the loop is not the answer to suspicious sicknote requests.
Pilot schemes are scheduled later this year which transfer the responsibility for sicknote certification to company health professionals. However forty-five percent of those surveyed via Croner’s www.humanresources-centre.net believe the schemes will be ’impractical’ and the responsibility should remain with GPs.
Thirty percent said that, although they agreed in principle with the idea of company health professionals, they didn’t think it would work in practice. The remaining twenty-five percent felt it would be an effective way to manage workplace sickness.
The current sickness certification system has recently come under much scrutiny. Research reported in the British Medical Journal found GPs say they don’t have either the time or the patience to challenge patients and often simply issue sicknotes ’on demand’. Half of the GPs interviewed for this project said they thought their certification role should be removed.
Today’s survey of over 250 GPs revealed that many admit to issuing sicknotes too readily and some do not want the responsibility at all.
Richard Smith, employment law expert at Croner, which is a division of Wolters Kluwer UK, believes that companies need to begin preparing for playing a more active role in managing workplace sickness.
He says: We all hear about the increasing amount of pressure on a dwindling number of general practitioners, and the pilot schemes planned for 2004 indicate that the Government is looking closely at reforming the sicknote system to help remove some of this pressure.
Patients requesting bogus sicknotes puts GPs in an uncomfortable position, but employees may think twice if the responsibility is transferred to a company health professional.
Companies need to start thinking about how they would manage the increased responsibility that might come their way in the next couple of years by making sure their own sickness monitoring systems are effective and clearly understood by employees.
The latest CBI figures show that the total cost of absence to British business was 11.8 billion in 2001, with 176 million working days lost during 2003.
Richard continues: Minimising sickness absence is an issue for every business. Most companies have policies in place which require employees to provide written explanations of any sick days, but the level to which they are adhered and enforced can vary greatly.
Taking subsequent action against any employee who is suspected of taking sick days without good reason will be much harder if procedures haven’t been properly followed and the required information isn’t readily available.
From the employee’s point of view, they also need to know the boundaries to which they must adhere in order to provide the appropriate medical information and to qualify for sick pay when they are genuinely ill.
Companies’ sickness policies must be clearly defined and circulated, and employees should be given the opportunity to have any queries answered straight away, so that all parties fully understand what the system entails.
Changes to system not the answer to bogus sicknotes, say HR professionals
.