Long waiting times and access to interventions can be a barrier to returning to work, says DAUK\u2019s GP committee.\r\n\r\nDr Rosie Shire, DAUK GP committee member, challenged assertions GPs \u2018immediately write people off with a fit note\u2019.\r\n\r\nShe was speaking on national radio about a pilot scheme the Government says will help GP practices get people back to work.\r\n\r\nDr Shire said that how the Government’s launch document spoke about fit notes was that once written by a GP, that patient \u2018was off forever\u2019.\r\n\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s not the case,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\n\u201cA sicknote is given because someone is unwell. It gives that person time to recover or to wait for interventions such as investigations or surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are times when someone has, say, back pain or mild depression or anxiety. Getting them support earlier would be really good.\r\n\r\n\u201cBut to say GPs stop giving out sicknotes and instead we refer everybody who gets one to get them back into work \u2013 there are a lot of people who are more seriously unwell and it\u2019s not as simple as that.\r\n\r\n\u201cMost people who are unable to work long-term would actually love to work.\u201d\r\n\r\nSpeaking on LBC, Dr Shire was asked about the numbers of fit notes issued having doubled since 2015.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe know that Covid has caused a lot of long-term problems,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\n\u201cMaybe it\u2019s that people have struggled to get interventions.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf you have a mental health issue or are struggling with workplace stress, getting early access to therapy to support you means, perhaps, you can go back to work sooner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut if you\u2019re having to wait six months for that intervention or you need a knee replacement because you can\u2019t do your job, having to wait a year or longer for that surgery means you can\u2019t work.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s not as simple as just stop giving a sicknote.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe want people to work and people do want to work, and that\u2019s really important.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe WorkWell Primary Care Innovation Fund<\/a> will is backed by \u00a31.5 million across 15 regions.\r\n\r\nThe Government says the scheme will look to find other ways to help people back into work.\r\n\r\nIt is expected to support up to 56,000 disabled people and people with health conditions into work by spring 2026.\r\n\r\nPlease support our work by joining DAUK<\/a> or donating to our GoFundMe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Long waiting times and access to interventions can be a barrier to returning to work, says DAUK\u2019s GP committee. Dr Rosie Shire, DAUK GP committee…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,59],"tags":[426,304],"class_list":["post-1406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dauk-news","category-general-practice","tag-dr-rosie-shire","tag-gp-committee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}