Don't you need to SEE/SPEAK TO a GP to get a fit note?

[50nifty]

A colleague has been off work for nearly 3 weeks with a sore mouth following a tooth extraction. No infection, just "it hurts".

His sick note ran out Tuesday. He's not got another one yet, as the GP is taking a while to issue it. He's saying he's likely to be off at the start of next week too.

This implies to me that the GP isn't seeing him to assess whether he's in need of the fit note or not.

Doesn't this make a mockery of the whole thing?

Incidentally, I saw him this evening and he didn't look in any pain. His absence means other people need to do extra every day to cover his workload. So yes, the situation is annoying me.

GPs now rightly take the view that it’s not their job to provide HR support, so they will generally certify based on reported symptoms rather than an appointment.

How does someone in pain look?

Ultimately a GP is unlikely to keep issuing fit notes for fun. It is possible you don’t know the whole story. I had a month off work 18 months ago and I didn’t want work to know to exact details so the GP was quite vague on it.

Are you his manager? How come you know for certain what info is on the fit note? How do you know that there hasn't been another note?

What has it actually got to do with you? It's frustrating when you're having to cover another persons work but beyond that I'm not sure it's really your business.

How do you know so much of your colleagues medical history?

One of my colleagues was off for 10 weeks with fit notes and I’m confident the GP never saw them as I knew from other sources that they were overseas for the whole period! Frustrating but nothing you can do really if the person declines to see OH

You can speak to a GP via phone, or submit an online form with evidence / letter from your procedure and they can issue one that way. You might not have to physically see them F2F. But yes, as above, how do you know all this? And that it ‘just hurts’? It may have gotten infected or gone wrong in some way. Teeth are effing painful, it radiates through your face in some cases.