Sickness Certificates now called: Statement of Fitness for Work
Sickness of seven days or fewer:
You do not require a doctor's sickness certificate for any illness lasting seven days or less.
The first seven days off work due to an illness can be self certified by completing a self-certification form (SC2) which is available from your employer or on the HMRC website or from this link (PDF, 50KB).
The seven days includes days that you don’t normally work. So when you work out how long you’ve been off sick, you should include weekends and bank holidays.
If your employer insists on a sick certificate from your doctor for an illness of less than seven days this is a private sick note for which a charge will be made by the practice. Please see our charges
Sickness of more than seven days:
There are only two ways of getting a medical certificate to say that you are unable to work.
- Either you have to see the doctor issuing the certificate, at the beginning of the illness
- or we need to see a recent letter from another doctor/hospital that explains why you can't work at the moment.
*If you come and see us for a certificate once you are better we aren't able to write one for you, you have to see us or contact us when you are actually ill.
* we are unable to back date any request for sick note (only exception is if there is a hospital attendance letter, discharge letter, A&E letter, out of hours GP letter)
If you have just come out of hospital we may not need to see you for medical reasons, but you may need a certificate. In these circumstances, if we have the hospital discharge letter/consultants letter we can provide you with a medical certificate without seeing you in person.
Fit Note Guide for Patients
DWP - Statement of Fitness for Work
Guidance for GPs on using fit notes (statements of fitness for work).
Doctors issue fit notes to people to provide evidence of the advice they have given about their fitness for work. They record details of the functional effects of their patient’s condition so the patient and their employer can consider ways to help them return to work.
If you’re a patient or employee, read www.gov.uk/taking-sick-leave
If an employee has been unfit for work for 4 weeks or more (or is likely to be), their GP or employer can refer them to Fit for Work – a new government occupational health service. This aims to reduce long-term sick leave by helping the employee develop a Return To Work Plan that’s tailored to their individual needs.
More guidance about health and work issues is available for: