British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will be cracking down on what he describes as a “sick note culture”, after pointing out that 94% of the 11m notes signed off by GPs last year denoted people as not fit to work.
Sunak called the number of economically inactive young people in the country a “tragedy”, reports The Independent, and in a speech announcing welfare reforms, he added that “we don’t just need to change the sick note, we need to change the sick note culture so the default becomes what work you can do – not what you can’t”.
The latest NHS figures from April 2023 to December 2023 show 7.9m people were issued with notes.
This could well reach the 11m figure recorded for 2022-23 when the number of people deemed “not fit for work” was 10.3m. The remainder were under categories such as “maybe fit for work”, “phased return” or “adapted work”.
While the number of people reporting depression and anxiety rose from 900 000 to 1.3m the four years to 2023, NHS figures show that mental health reasons accounted for just 10% of sick notes issued between January 2023 and December 2023.
Sunak’s comments come amid a rising waiting list for mental health services which is estimated to be at 1.9m, up from estimates of 1.6m in 2022.
Women off
NHS figures show sick notes issued to female patients are consistently higher – at 59% – than for male patients, and with most notes recommending five to 12 weeks off, across all categories of illness.
Several unions have warned the Prime Minister that a more urgent issue facing the public is the NHS waiting list of 7.6m.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
UK to clamp down on avalanche of sick notes
UK pharmacists and therapists now also allowed to issue sick notes
Why the courts are sceptical about sick notes