Report to weaken role of sick-note system

21 November 2011

The Independent Review Into Sickness Absence, will say GPs are not well placed to judge what work sick people can do and have no incentive not to sign sick notes sought by their patients according to Bloomberg News.

Ministers will be urged to set up a government-funded service to assess whether people are too ill to work so employers do not have to rely on family doctors, according to leaked findings of an official report.

The report was commissioned in February from David Frost, former head of the British Chambers of Commerce, and Dame Carol Black, the government's director for health and work. According to Black 'GPs have told us they do not have adequate occupational health advice and in the short time they have with patients they don't have time to do an in depth functional assessment'.

Black added, if an employee is off work for 20 weeks sick, there is only a 5% chance of them returning and on average the UK has a £13 billion sickness benefit bill with employers annually paying £9 billion in sick pay.