{"id":2323,"date":"2026-03-13T13:21:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/?p=2323"},"modified":"2026-03-13T14:04:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:04:45","slug":"dauk-contributes-to-debate-on-the-future-of-fit-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauk-contributes-to-debate-on-the-future-of-fit-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"DAUK contributes to debate on the future of fit notes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GP co-lead Dr Steve Taylor highlighted the work of DAUK on fit notes during an interview on national radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Taylor was discussing a survey by BBC that found that hundreds of GPs have never refused to sign a patient off work for mental health issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some respondents <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c20lew24kngo\">told the BBC<\/a> they were frustrated with the current system, saying providing fit notes should not be part a GP\u2019s role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fit notes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK) GP co-leads Dr Taylor and Dr Sarah Jacques last year took part in discussions with the Department for Work and Pensions about the future of fit notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ahead of the meeting, <a href=\"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauk-engages-with-dwp-on-the-future-of-fit-notes\/\">DAUK surveyed GPs<\/a> to ensure their views were represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The survey found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>69% of GPs said fit notes should not remain part of their remit<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>85% felt a new service should take responsibility for issuing fit notes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>46% supported a return to four weeks self-certification<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>51% did not favour self-certification by patients<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>94% reported that refusing a fit note negatively affects the doctor\/patient relationship<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Taylor, speaking to Tom Swarbrick on LBC, said: \u201cThe majority of respondents said they didn&#8217;t think GPs were the best people to issue fit notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Work health<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI wasn&#8217;t expecting that many, but the majority did agree with the survey the BBC have done that actually it&#8217;s hard for GPs to assess health in work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He added: \u201cGPs usually only hear one side of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe person in front of us says they are struggling to work, but we don\u2019t know the workplace situation or the employer\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Self-certify<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat worked well was during the pandemic when people could self-certify for a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAnd so the conversations were occurring between the employee and the employer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DV040QrDMv-\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DrSteveTaylor\/status\/2032142673532846492\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Listen to Dr Taylor\u2019s LBC interview<\/a> on the DAUK Instagram.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Please support our work by contributing to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-the-work-of-the-doctors-association-uk-dauk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">our crowd funder<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":1566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,59,1],"tags":[656,22,710,61],"class_list":["post-2323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dauk-in-the-media","category-general-practice","category-uncategorised","tag-dr-sarah-jacques","tag-dr-steve-taylor","tag-fit-notes","tag-general-practice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2323"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2326,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions\/2326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}