Doctoring of sick note? How serious is this?

[Lushmetender]

I have a staff member on second sick note. I should of got it at beginning of month. Have asked many times and we nearly had to send an awol letter. I thought finally it’s come in and I received it today but it’s clear to me the date of the note has been tampered with. It’s clear it’s been dated mid month but 3 digits have been tippexed out to make it look like the 1 st of the month. Eg looks as though it was a double digit say 14 - but the ‘4’ has been tippexed out. This could have been done by the drs surgery but usually they score out and initial it or could have been done by the employee. How seriously would you take this. Sadly I think the person is malingering and seems to be copying a co colleague who eventually got a pay out. I have asked HR what they think but wondered if anyone had a similar situation?

It wouldn’t be unproven though would it? The gp would know what the dates on the fit note were, and would be able to see they did/didn’t match the dates on the one provided to the employer.

Wait for HR.

But yes if false then that's gross misconduct and off they go.

of course not but we'd ask them to send us the fit note to check that it had been altered.

Ask the employee for the original. You should always have sight of the original as the manager, and take your own copy if you need to retain one.

i thought they were all electronic nowadays as PDF sent by the doctors so any amendments would be digital? I don’t have physical copies of my sick notes as they were sent to me by text (via a secure link) by the doctor - I thought everywhere did it like this?

Say you are having trouble reading the date on this one and ask for another copy. If it is a error by the doctor and you have the original you may need to return it to her as she will have to return it to the doctors to get it reissued.

We've had this before, we suspected the sick note was a fake or doctored in some way, we couldnt prove it, not able to insist on medical records being given to HR or manager.

A patient doesnt have to engage in that with their doctors surgery, how would you insist on it?

Ask for the original. OH should be able raise queries if something does not add up.

Ask the employer to send it

we'd remove the patient from our list and get them to find a new GP. And of course it should be gross misconduct/sackable offence.

Wow! This is the kind of compassion I like to see in a doctor.

OP should you at least give the "offender" a chance to explain himself? You are assuming a lot here (that he is copying his colleague, malingering, etc).
Perhaps the GP issued the note withe the wrong date in error and he corrected it as you were chasing him for the note. (Do you know how long it takes to get a GP appointment these days?)

In fact someone that is genuinely ill is more likely to allow a gap in their sick notes to happen than someone who is playing the system.

What’s the reason for the sick note?

Seems a lot of effort to go to just for an extra bit of time off when they could have just phoned their GP and explained that they needed a bit more time off if they didn’t well enough.

Is it mental health related?

I'd challenge that it's not that difficult to get a medical note from a GP for mental health reasons - so it would seem extreme that the person had gone to such lengths as to falsify one. It's not often a Doctor refuses to sign someone on off for MH reasons.

My gut feel is that if the person did amend one it's because they didn't renew it in time and there was a date gap.

So I'd proceed with caution.

The employer wouldnt be able to do that I dont think

Your not allowed to use tippex for mistakes in healthcare, you draw a horizontal line and initial it with the date and write the correct information afterwards.

This is advice from a legal firm
… where there is clear evidence to support any suspicions, it is open to the employer to contact the employee’s GP practice to ask them to comment on whether or not a sick note is genuine. Even though doctors are not permitted to provide any medical information without their patient’s consent, they can check the fit note serial number and confirm if they have issued it. They can also comment on whether a sick note is not as it was when originally signed without breaching their patient’s confidentiality, for example, if the dates have been changed.

You can't ask the surgery anything, but you can send the note back to them for them to check if it has been altered and deal with it from their side.

From your side, you will have to raise it with HR and ask for the original. (which I suspect will be "lost in the post")

We were told exactly the opposite from our HR (Local Authority), without the employee/patients consent the employer cant have any dialogue with the surgery.

This. Person would be sacked for gross misconduct and reported for fraud.

GP here and I agree.

This happens maybe 6 times a year in our practice. I'd say about 2/3 of incidents turn out to be someone being daft (e.g. GP accidentally writes wrong month and patient corrects it), rather than suggestive of any intent to defraud.

So before you leap in with disciplinaries and interviews under caution, do an investigation.

Ask their surgery. Just email them what you have and ask them to confirm if it matches their records. Simple yes or no, nothing disclosed.

The employee can still retain the original as instructed but show it to someone at the company.

This is making me glad I write in the notes “sick cert for 3 weeks issued”

Someone in our organisation was sacked for that

Employee said they’d got it on the 4th and would send me it that day. It didn’t come. I’ve been asking for it a number of times. Last time I had to leave a message to say we’d have to say they’d gone awol and the note appeared the next day - I think they got the sick note late but instead of being honest panicked and
they tippexed out the 2 dates. Yes MH issues. Problem is we have a few people saying they have MH issues following a person
who left months after bringing grievances against management in UK. Seems a coincidence all are getting sick.
all before my time but a pattern is emerging