Sickness is a big problem for many of the UK’s employers with many days lost each year costing them significant amounts of money. A new government scheme is aiming to try and get people back to work in a shorter time but it seems that it may have its flaws. The plans to introduce ‘fit notes’ mean that a GP can issue a list of jobs that a person is able to carry out safely without making their illness any worse meaning that they can return to work even if not fully recovered. However, one expert, BUPA medical director Dr. Andrew Vallance-Owen, has suggested that GPs are ill-equipped to carry out this health assessment and it is just another added pressure on their already limited time. Not only will this mean that it could be even harder for a person to get an appointment with their doctor but their fit note could be inaccurate. People may be advised to get a quote for private medical insurance to ensure that they have access to a doctor in the shortest amount of time and avoid waiting even longer.

Occupational health specialists may be more appropriately placed than GPs to issue such ‘fit notes’, but gaining access to these on the NHS may be a difficult and lengthy process. Private medical insurance policy holders will be able to see a specialist within a shorter amount of time, with more ease and in a time and place convenient to them. They will then be able to return to work sooner and save themselves money they would have lost from sick-days. They will also have a more accurate fit note which will make sure that they do not carry out any tasks which could cause them to be ill again. In a recent survey, BUPA found that two thirds of employers think occupational health specialists are better equipped to deal with ‘fit notes’ than GPs.