Dr Zoidberg wrote:
Fit and Sick notes are basically the same thing, just with a glass half full / half empty spin on things.
They are actually exactly the same form, I believe. As far as I have seen they actually re-named the sick note the 'fit note', but the important thing in this case is that it is the section that deals with the return to work recommendation that is needed in this case.
If you look here, you will see sections 3 and 4 of the fit note (Which is properly called 'Statement of fitness for work, for social security or statutory sickness pay':
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... jan-15.pdfThe example document is on page 10. Section three basically gives whether the patient is fit to return to work or still requires time off. section 4 is a recommendation on what action of return to work that patient can benefit from, including details of anything that your condition might affect.
I do understand that some people have returned to work without needing to have this part filled in, and just gone back when it expired, but that isn't the case for all workplaces and is probably role dependant. I needed one because mine was in regards to problems with my pregnancy and I kept collapsing they had to take serious note of whether I was able to go back to work without endangering myself or the baby. My first doctors note was only for two weeks: If I had just gone back when that elapsed then god knows where I would be now, because I got much worse, as the big scar on my head goes to show... I had to be reassessed many times until my body started to react how it was supposed to and my blood pressure and all other things normalised - then I was given a return to work plan on the fit note with monitoring by my midwife.
I can fully understand why my mother's partner's workplace now require one of him. He was taken into hospital for two weeks with suspected heart attack and stroke. He works doing a physical job as a bin man: it makes sense to say 'hey, let's have some word from your doctor on whether you are OK to go back to work and if there is anything we can do to support you in this' rather than, 'well, your most recent sick note has expired, you must be fine' which would perhaps be somewhat neglectful on their part. It's a council based job, and so I guess they are very likely to have quite inflexible guidelines about that kind of thing - unfortunately trying to impress this upon the doctor at his surgery does not seem to be getting him very far. He is there now, waiting to be seen, so fingers crossed.