‘Ludicrous’ school sick notes cause 100m trips to the doctors every year
OVERZEALOUS schools which demand a doctor’s sick note for missed days are contributing to almost 100 million needless GP appointments each year, medical leaders have said.
Approximately one in four visits to a family doctor is avoidable, with GPS mired in “ludicrous bureaucracy” as well as being forced to deal with patients who could treat themselves, the British Medical Association says. Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the new chairman of the BMA, said head teachers now demand a doctor’s signature for pupils to use asthma inhalers or to prove they have missed school through genuine illness.
Ending the form filling, along with consultations for people suffering from hay fever, coughs and colds, as well as those seeking re-referrals to hospital, would create extra capacity equivalent to 10,000 new GPS, he told the BMA annual conference.
Dr Nagpaul said there had to be “an element of trust” between teachers and parents to avoid wasting doctors’ time.
“We are often asked to fill in very simple forms, like if it’s policy for a school to have a GP signature that they should even have an asthma inhaler,” he said. “You don’t have to have a signature for every little thing.” It came as the doctors’ union said patients could be turned away from overburdened GP practices. The BMA voted to develop a system of “black alert” warnings for primary care, aping official NHS protocol for hospitals that cannot cope with patient demand.
Under the plans, patients could be sent to walk-in centres or accident and emergency departments.
“We need to have these pressure valves, we need to have safe practice,” said Dr Richard Vautrey, who leads the union’s general practice committee.
“We can’t expect any practice or any doctor to work faster and faster and see more and more patients.”
Around 15million GP appointments each year are taken up with re-referring patients to a specialist after they have missed an appointment or been told they need to see a different specialist, as well as answering queries following hospital treatment.