You do not require a doctor's sickness certificate for any illness lasting seven days or less. Your employer may however require you to complete a self-certification form (SC2) which is available from your employer or on the HMRC website.
We now request sick notes via our online consultation service. Please see the front page of the website for this.
Please do not come to see us for!
A note to say you are fit to go back to work- this is no longer needed. If your employer insists we are happy to provide a report to them with your consent - but we will charge a fee in order to discourage unneeded paperwork.
Evidence that you are sick
If you are sick for more than seven days, your employer can ask you to supply a sick note from a doctor. This does not have to be a GP.
Specialists and A&E doctors have sick note forms and it is part of their job to issue them, but you have to ask!
Statement of Fitness for Work - ’Fit Note'
In 2010 the Fit Note idea was introduced. Doctors can provide a certificate specifying what type of work a sick person is capable of. This is a good idea and we often use them. Sometimes employers are not very cooperative. For more information see the DirectGov website (where this information was sourced)
Non work Certificates
These days there are all sorts of people who want a certificate from the doctor. However GPs have no duty to provide certificates except to people to need them for work. We generally do not like all the other requests from schools universities clubs etc as we think it is all rather pointless work which is used to cover peoples backs and little else. It also potentially bring patients into the surgery and takes our time away from dealing with real medical problems. In particular we do not provide this paperwork to schoolchildren. We think parents should have a chat with teachers and come to a mutual agreement, and that does not need doctors.
In some circumstances, most obviously travel cancellations and private sickness insurance, we will complete the relevant form from the company for a fee.