Sickness Certificates

You do not require a doctor’s sickness certificate for any illness lasting seven days or less. Your employer may however require you to complete a self-certification form (SC2) which is available from your employer or on the HMRC website.

Evidence that you are sick

If you are sick for more than seven days, your employer can ask you to give them some form of medical evidence to support payment of SSP (statutory sick pay).

Your employer can ask you to confirm that you’ve been ill. You can do this by filling in a form yourself when you return to work. This is called self-certification.

If you’re sick and off work for more than seven days, your employer will probably ask for proof of your illness. Most employers ask for a fit note from your GP.

However, this will also depend on your employer’s company policy on sick leave (or sickness absence). This policy should tell you how many days you can be off sick before you need to provide proof of illness or a fit note.

You could also provide evidence from someone who is not a medical practitioner, e.g. a dentist. Your employer will decide whether or not this evidence is acceptable. If your employer has any doubts, they may still ask for a medical certificate from your GP.

Statement of Fitness for Work – ’Fit Note’

The ‘fit note’ was introduced on 6 April 2010. With your employer’s support, the note will help you return to work sooner by providing more information about the effects of your illness or injury. Patients requesting an ongoing fit note will need to contact the surgery via telephone. The request will be passed to the Duty Doctor for assessment. If the Doctor needs to consult further they will contact the patient by telephone.

If the Duty Doctor does not need to consult further, the request will be processed and the fit note will be sent electronically to the patient.

PLEASE NOTE: The GP telephone booking slots available online cannot be used for fit note requests. Online bookings made for ongoing fit note requests will be cancelled by the practice.

We have taken this measure to ensure our GP’s can remain focused on patients clinical needs. Ensuring patients can access our service with their health concerns as quickly as possible. Fit notes will be processed separately to our usual surgery clinics.