Latest news with #sicknotes
CTV News
3 hours ago
- Health
- CTV News
Doctors Manitoba issues new guidance in bid to end sick notes
Doctors Manitoba has launched a campaign to call for the end of sick notes, saying the move would reduce unnecessary medical visits and free up care for those in need. On Tuesday, the organization announced its 'Sick of Sick Notes' campaign, which includes guidance for employers, a new website, and a social media video. As part of this guidance, Doctors Manitoba suggested that employers remove sick notes as a requirement, update contracts and employee handbooks, and implement alternatives to manage absenteeism. Additional guidance and resources will be added to the campaign's website in the future. The organization noted that some employers, including Canada Life and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, have already eliminated sick note requirements for short-term illnesses, adding that ending the practice would free up more than 300,000 appointments per year at doctors' offices and emergency rooms. 'Many visits to get a sick note are actually medically unnecessary, with no symptoms to verify and no new medical care required,' said Dr. Nichelle Desilets, president of Doctors Manitoba. 'Those visits cost taxpayers about $8 million per year. In other words, we are all paying for sick notes, whether it's through our taxes or by waiting longer for the care that we need to seek.' CTV News reported last year on a Doctors Manitoba report that called for major changes to the way sick notes are issued in the province, saying they are a waste of time. According to the report, over 600,000 sick notes are requested each year, which results in 36,000 hours of physician time. Doctors Manitoba recently submitted recommendations to the provincial government, calling for regulatory changes. 'Manitoba is one of only two provinces in Canada that hasn't taken any legislative action to limit the use of sick notes,' Desilets said. 'We've consulted with hundreds of employers, and we've heard a strong, consistent message that is that they want to be on a level playing field.' CTV News reached out to the province for more information. • With files from CTV's Charles Lefebvre.
CBC
5 hours ago
- Health
- CBC
Employers should ditch sick notes to free up physicians, save taxpayers millions: Doctors Manitoba
A physician advocacy organization is underscoring the role Manitoba employers can play in freeing up physicians to spend more time on patient care and less on paperwork by no longer requiring their workers to get sick notes. Eliminating sick notes in cases of short-term illness would add an equivalent of 50 doctors — or 300,000 more patient appointments — to Manitoba's health-care system per year, Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Nichelle Desilets said during a news conference Tuesday. "Every sick note takes time away from patients who need medical care," Desilets said. "That's concerning, because Manitoba currently has the second-worst doctor shortage in the country." More than 600,000 sick notes are requested annually in Manitoba — many of which aren't medically necessary — and they cost taxpayers about $8 million per year, she said. "We are all paying for sick notes, whether it's through our taxes or by waiting longer for the care that we need," said Desilets. The "Sick of Sick Notes" campaign is the latest push from Doctors Manitoba to "make Manitoba more doctor-friendly," in part by reducing administrative burdens. The associated website, created by Doctors Manitoba, includes guidance to help employers navigate cases involving short-term employee absences. A commercial for the campaign critiques and contrasts the current system by showing employees of a fictional business divulging personal health issues to a visibly uncomfortable corporate human resources professional. That's followed by the message, "We don't send medical problems to HR, so why do we send HR issues to the doctor?" Similar sick note campaigns have been launched recently by other Canadian physician advocacy organizations. Earlier this year, Doctors Manitoba recommended the provincial government pass legislation limiting the need for sick notes in cases involving employee absences less than 10 days. In March, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said they had met with the organization and the province was considering the proposal. Desilets said instituting the change would align Manitoba with other provinces. Newfoundland and Labrador has revised provincial Labour Standards Act provisions that previously required a sick note after three days. Beyond that, employers are allowed to craft their own in-house sick leave protocols. Employers in Nova Scotia can't ask for a note until a worker has been off with an illness for more than five consecutive days. Quebec and Ontario have similar legislation, where the limit is three days. Saskatchewan proposed legislative amendments late last year restricting employers from demanding a note, unless a worker has been absent for five days in a row, or has missed two or more days in a row twice in a calendar year. Encouraging a more 'trusting' workplace culture Desilets said employers want clear legislation to help standardize approaches to legitimate cases involving employees seeking accommodations, return-to-work requests and conditions of recurring illnesses. Tory McNally, a human resources expert and vice-president with Legacy Bowes, said removing the need for routine sick notes also encourages a more "trusting, accountable workplace culture." "From an HR perspective, sick notes have long been seen as a necessary formality, but in practice, they often create more problems than they solve," McNally said. "They don't offer real insight into an employee's ability to work, and they rarely prevent misuse. Instead they add administrative burdens for employers, increase pressure on our health-care system and can even discourage employees from staying at home when they're unwell." The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority and Canada Life are some of the organizations that have already done away with sick notes for short-term illnesses, said Doctors Manitoba. The NDP government has heeded previous calls from Doctors Manitoba to reduce paperwork for physicians, including a commitment shortly after being elected in 2023 to a system-wide overhaul and transition from paper medical records to digital documents.
CBC
6 hours ago
- Health
- CBC
Manitoba employers should ditch sick notes to free up physicians, save taxpayers millions: Doctors Manitoba
A physician advocacy organization is underscoring the role Manitoba employers can play in freeing up physicians to spend more time on patient care and less on paperwork by no longer requiring their workers to get sick notes. Eliminating sick notes in cases of short-term illness would add an equivalent of 50 doctors — or 300,000 more patient appointments — to Manitoba's health-care system per year, Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Nichelle Desilets said during a news conference Tuesday. "There are over 600,000 sick notes requested in Manitoba every year. Every sick note takes time away from patients who need medical care," Desilets said. "That's concerning, because Manitoba currently has the second-worst doctor shortage in the country." Many sick note appointments are medically unnecessary and they cost taxpayers about $8 million per year, she said. The "Sick of Sick Notes" campaign is the latest push from Doctors Manitoba to "make Manitoba more doctor-friendly," in part, by reducing administrative burdens. The associated website, created by Doctors Manitoba, includes guidance for employers to help them navigate cases involving short-term employee absences. Earlier this year, the organization urged the provincial government to pass legislation limiting the need for sick notes in cases involving employee absences less than 10 days. There have been similar campaigns launched by other Canadian physician advocacy organizations this year. Desilets said employers want legislation to help standardize approaches to legitimate cases involving employees seeking accommodations and return-to-work requests. Tory McNally, human resources expert and vice-president with Legacy Bowes, said removing the need for routine sick notes encourages a more "trusting, accountable workplace culture." "From an HR perspective, sick notes have long been seen as a necessary formality, but in practise, they often create more problems than they solve," McNally said. "They don't offer real insight into an employee's ability to work, and they rarely prevent misuse. Instead they add administrative burdens for employers, increase pressure on our health-care system and can even discourage employees from staying at home when they're unwell." The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority and Canada Life are some of the organizations that have already done away with sick notes for short-term illnesses, said Doctors Manitoba.
CTV News
8 hours ago
- Health
- CTV News
Sick notes add to pressure on health-care system, Manitoba doctors say
A doctor tends to patients in his office in Illinois on Oct. 30, 2012. (Jeff Roberson / AP) WINNIPEG — The group that represents physicians across Manitoba is stepping up its campaign to restrict the use of sick notes. Doctors Manitoba says physicians field requests for more than 600,000 sick notes every year from employees who take time off work, and that takes time away from treating patients. The group is asking the Manitoba government to follow most other provinces and set limits on how employers can demand sick notes. The Saskatchewan government passed a law this year that prohibits employers from asking for a sick note unless the employee has been absent for more than five consecutive working days, or has been absent twice for two or more days within a year. The Manitoba government has said it is considering changes but has not made any commitments. Doctors Manitoba has launched a new web page and social media video on the topic, along with advice for employers. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2025 Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
‘Nearly everyone I know has one': The borough where one in three people has a sick note
When David was 49, he spent six weeks off work recovering from what he calls a health 'nightmare'. Complications following surgery for diverticulitis, a bowel complaint, kept him away from his role as a healthcare assistant in a local hospital. On his return, his employer minimised his duties. Now in his 60s and retired, David (who doesn't want to give his full name) is making his way across a rainy, low-rise shopping precinct in Knowsley on his mobility scooter. He is one of a disproportionately large number of residents in the Merseyside borough who has taken an extended period of time off work for sickness at some point. Despite, or perhaps because of his own health struggles, he takes a dim view of some of those in the area who obtain sick notes (known as 'fit notes') for physical or mental illness. 'I know of people who have them,' he says. 'Some find it no problem [to get one]. I've heard them say [it was easy].' Research carried out by The Telegraph has found that Knowsley has the highest proportion of working age people receiving statements of fitness for work – documents providing advice to the claimant and their employer about the impact of a health condition on their ability to do a job. It is used as evidence that someone can't work, can't carry out certain tasks at work, or requires certain adaptations to remain in work. In Knowsley, an area to the east of Liverpool that covers several towns, 3.1 sick notes were issued last year for every 10 registered NHS patients, according to the most recent data (which goes up to December 2024), making it the 'sick note capital' of England. Almost a fifth of the sick notes issued were for mental health complaints, making mental ill health the most common stated reason for obtaining one. Fifty-six per cent are listed as unknown reasons, or 'reasons not provided' – a gap in the data that is replicated across the country. David, from Kirkby in the north of the borough, is not the only one to suspect some may be getting themselves signed off work for questionable reasons. 'A lot of them do it because their mothers do it and their fathers do it and so they do it,' says Lele, 48, a nurse in Huyton, a town to the south, where Liverpool F.C. and Everton merchandise hangs side by side in a market stall in the main pedestrianised zone. 'They fall into the pattern. Nearly everyone I know [has a sick note].' When it comes to understanding the story behind the figures, intergenerational worklessness is part of the picture in certain areas that long ago lost their industry and with it, often, their sense of purpose and identity. ' People talk about 'sick note Britain', but there are definitely post-industrial areas like [Knowsley] where you have long-term entrenched worklessness,' says Ed Davies, director of research at the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ). 'You've got Knowsley on one side of the Mersey and Birkenhead on the other, and Birkenhead also has some of the highest levels of incapacity benefit, but what these places have in common is the loss of the shipping industry and they've never quite recovered.' For young people who are fourth or fifth generation unemployed, 'it's not so much that they're shirking, it's that they haven't got a framework, they've literally never seen what it looks like to set an alarm clock and get a job,' says Davies. Life expectancy is lower in poorer areas This doesn't mean that all of the sickness is not genuine. Knowsley is ranked as having the second-highest levels of deprivation nationally, and the link between poverty and ill health is well established, if complex. Life expectancy is generally lower in poorer areas, and residents in deprived communities live a higher proportion of their lives with health problems, a report by The King's Fund noted last year. Reasons for this range from the difficulty of accessing NHS services and a healthy diet, to poor housing and stress caused by financial struggles. 'What I see [locally] is very high levels of ill health because of all those [social determinants],' says Dr Sarah McNulty, director of public health for Knowsley Council. 'The environment, their jobs… the housing they're in, life stresses, financial stresses.' Standing by the cab rank in Kirkby, taxi driver James Catterall, 71, points towards some high-rise apartments in the distance. 'See that block of flats?' he says. '[The residents] have got three weeks to move out.' He's talking about Beech Rise and Willow Rise, which the fire service recently condemned due to problems including broken lifts, badly fitted doors and malfunctioning fire alarms. Many people in those blocks work, say the local cabbies, but they're now on the verge of losing their homes. The knock-on effects of this may well be seen down the line in health outcomes. Residents mention other local issues too, including concerns about the health risks of certain industrial sites. Kirkby developed as an urban centre in the mid-20th century, providing more housing for the overspill of people from Liverpool. Tony Carr, another local cabbie and former local councillor, talks of its decline in the 1980s and 1990s and its recent, tentative steps towards improvement. On the edge of its tired town centre, it now has a retail park with a Taco Bell and a Morrisons. An Amazon warehouse provides employment nearby. But Carr is conscious that such things don't turn around an area overnight. 'It's the generational deprivation in the area,' he says. 'The hopelessness.' The locals, he says, are 'real salt of the earth people [who] look after their own', but many suffer from the mental impact of the stresses and strains they have absorbed over the years. 'They've been through Covid, some have lost their jobs, they're trying to keep their homes and the prospects are not fantastic in this area. The type of jobs people are taking are as minimum wage care workers.' It is against this backdrop that an estimated three in 10 are obtaining sick notes, although the true figure may be slightly lower as one person can receive more than one sick note. Unlike elsewhere, less than three-quarters of these documents are given out by doctors in Knowsley. Some 23.4 per cent are administered by nurses, and another 3.7 per cent by pharmacists. While this is in keeping with government guidelines about which professionals can issue sick notes, it differs from the national picture, in which 90 per cent of all sick notes are provided by doctors. While fit notes don't automatically entitle the recipient to benefits, they can be used to support a claim to receive welfare support. In Knowsley, unemployment rose to 4.3 per cent between 2022 and 2023, compared to 3.7 per cent across Britain in the same period, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data. Economic inactivity – people who are neither employed nor seeking work – rose to more than a quarter (26.1 per cent), compared with just over a fifth nationally. However, Knowsley is not an outlier. Fit notes, introduced in 2010, have been following an upward trajectory during the past decade. In 2015, there were 5.2 million issued in England. By last year, that number had shot up to 10.9 million. In 2023, for those economically inactive because of long-term sickness, nearly 40 per cent reported having five or more health conditions, ONS figures show. 'A GP will have seven minutes to assess fitness for work' Politicians have been alive to the problem for a while. In the dying days of the Conservative government, then prime minister Rishi Sunak announced plans to tackle the UK's so-called 'sick note culture', claiming that benefits had become a 'lifestyle choice' for some. He suggested stripping GPs of their ability to sign people off work, handing the responsibility to 'work and health professionals' instead. In April Liz Kendall, Labour's Work and Pensions Secretary, said the sick note system was being re-examined as part of planned reforms to stop people dropping out of work due to ill health. One of the problems with the current system, says Davies, is that doctors have so little time to reach a conclusion about a patient's fitness for work. 'A GP will have seven minutes to assess what's going on in someone's life,' he says. 'Potentially a welder comes in and says 'I have a bad back and can't do my job', and the GP knows nothing about welding. The complexity [they have to deal with] in those seven minutes is huge. Often GPs will follow the path of least resistance.' In places like Knowsley, there is high demand for primary care services. 'And,' says McNulty, 'there will be patients presenting with multiple problems, not only physical but mental health [-related].' GPs, then, have a lot to get to grips with during an appointment. Mental health and behavioural disorders were the most common reasons given nationally for the issuing of sick notes in the past year, according to the data. Again, these tend not to be problems that GPs can get to the bottom of in the course of one brief consultation. The result is cases where patients are parked on medication or signed off work when these aren't necessarily the best solutions for them, evidence suggests. Recent polling by the CSJ found 83 per cent of GPs were concerned that antidepressants were prescribed when non-pharmaceutical interventions would be more suitable. Some 84 per cent of GPs agreed that society's approach to mental health had led to the normal ups and downs of life being seen as medical problems. What's clear is that the numbers seeking support for mental ill health have spiralled dramatically. England has seen a 70 per cent rise in the number of those in contact with mental health services over the last eight years, according to a CSJ report published in January. One reason it suggested for the soaring numbers was the 'over-medicalisation' of mental health. Some of the surge in mental health conditions, however, was 'undoubtedly a rise in prevalence and caused by the gradual erosion of the protective factors that enable good mental health. We have seen a hollowing out of strong families, cohesive communities, economic opportunity and good work'. Jobs might be available in places like Knowsley, but the type of work matters. 'Its not just about work, it's about good work,' says McNulty. In 2024, almost 12 per cent of those in work locally were in roles classed as 'elementary occupations', mainly consisting of simple and routine tasks. This compared to almost nine per cent across Britain. In other words, a greater proportion of workers in Knowsley are employed as, say, cleaners, waste collectors, street vendors or telephone salespeople than elsewhere. David talks of how his first role in a hospital was as a cleaner, but 'you get yourself in the door and work yourself up'. The reality today is different. Cleaners are likely to be working for a cleaning company to which the organisation has subcontracted the work, Davies points out. Opportunities for meaningful progress are far more limited. 'That purpose and identity is often not there any more,' says Davies. Others suggest there has been a cultural shift in our attitudes towards work – perhaps not unrelated to the quality of jobs available, and the accompanying fraying of the social fabric in post-industrial Britain. 'If Rachel Reeves wants to unlock growth we have to look at our culture around work, and why Asian and North American countries that incentivise hard work are growing so much faster,' says former Conservative health secretary Jeremy Hunt. Economic impact of long-term sickness crisis What can be done about all of this? Overhauling the structure of the modern labour landscape is beyond the ability of any one government. But certain reforms could help, says Davies. Relieving GPs of the burden of assessing people's fitness to work would be widely welcomed, including by GPs themselves, he suggests. Other solutions could include easing people into work via 'microjobs', in which those who lack experience of employment do just a few hours a week at first to get them accustomed to it. Taking the time to find out what's really wrong with someone and how they can be supported to work will also be essential. 'Social prescribing', which involves connecting patients to local groups, activities and services rather than just handing them a script for, say, antidepressants, is another potentially fruitful avenue being explored. The economy, as well as people's ability to lead purposeful, fulfilling lives, depends on getting it right. Britain's long-term sickness crisis means the country's economy is 10 per cent smaller than it otherwise would be, according to a report produced for the NHS this week by Frontier Economics. Back in Kirkby, Mollie, who owns a town centre cafe called Mollies Munch, says the main shopping street was once busy and thriving. Now, there are pawnbrokers, bookmakers and cheap clothing stores. A subdued atmosphere hangs over the concrete plaza. 'Nothing much to bring people in,' says Mollie's colleague Rosie. 'No wonder people are depressed,' adds Mollie. There's less talk now of levelling up towns like this than there was a few years back. But the need very much remains. Improving the economy, and people's lives, will depend in part on doing so. It will also require a better understanding of why so many aren't working.
