Pharmacists to be given legal right to certify fit notes from July 2022

[TimeLord]

Pharmacists to be given legal right to certify fit notes from July 2022
Government says pharmacists, along with nurses, occupational therapists and physiotherapists, will be able to legally certify statements of fitness for work, but it is not clear under what conditions these powers will be used.

Just see this on the news. Not sure how confidential it will work, waiting in a queue to ask for one or privately in a separate room.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61743729


And it was only recently that it was in the news pharmacists are quitting because of abuse and threats of violence, so I'm sure giving them legal rights to issue sick notes will make things worse for them.

[nukecad]

It was annnounced last week, here's the DWP press release:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/m...tify-fit-notes

I see it as just a watering down of the authority behind a fit note; it no longer has to be a doctor issuing it so it becomes less 'Official'.
Which in turn make it easier for the jobcentre to ignore.

And of course we can now expect an upsurge in forged fit notes.

[TimeLord]

No I hadn't seen it, only the news on pharmacists leaving it is getting stupid now Nuke to access anything that a few years ago you could book that week. I phoned my dentist and was told January 2023. Once it gets back to what it was they'll say' it's wonderful and we achieved it. Lol

[nukecad]

Just reading that pharmacists will also be refering potential cancer cases directly to hospital:
https://www.bmj.com/content/377/bmj.o1483

Looks to me like someone has got fed up with GPs not seeing people for days/weeks, and everyone clogging up A&E because they can't get to their GP.
So they are trying to use pharmacists to cut the GPs out, I wonder what they'll move from GPs to pharmacists next?

[TimeLord]

It's strange Nuke how the system that was previously in place is in total chaos now, I don't think that many doctors have retired or quit but they're becoming like gold dust.

[nukecad]

Being a GP used to be a 24/7 job, they would turn out in the middle of the night if needed, and that's why they were respected by their patients and 'pillars of society'.

Modern GP's want to work office hours only, (for comparibly high wages of course), and to still have the same public respect, and the world doesn't work like that.

You are hard pushed to even see a GP now, never mind have one come out even during the daytime.

I don't think that there are any less GP's per person (I could be wrong) but because diagnosis and treatment moves on they have more tests and the like to do, in less working hours.

So it's pretty obvious;
If you can't get to a GP when you are ill without having to wait for a week or two (by which time you've probably got better, or died) then where can you go and be seen by a doctor? - A&E of course, so people are turning up there even when it's not an emergency.

Most A&E's have had to expand and now have 'Majors' for emergencies, and 'Minors' for cuts/fractures and all of the little things that people used to ring/go to the GP for.

The governments answer is to try and get people to go to the pharmacy as a first port of call.
It's going to take time to change everyones thinking, but starting them with fit notes and cancer referals is a step along that path.
And of course they'll have to do something with pharmacy opening hours as well, or it's back to nowehere to go for help in the evening but A&E.

[TimeLord]

You're very right they was on call 24/7

I think since most surgeries say' phone 111 if its out of hours and that gets you a trainee doctor mostly that turns up to assess your condition and then either calls an ambulance lol, if required or forwards you to a district care to follow up. Not sure when 111 came in but its gone rapidly worse at GP'S since it started.