Extending a sick note

[ScuderiaSedici]

I had surgery yesterday, and despite recovery time for the op being stated to be 10-14 days, my surgeon only signed a note for a week. I was told that I could extend it with my GP.

Do I literally just put the form in on Tuesday next week and explain I had surgery and don't feel ready to go back? I'm struggling with sleep so far, and some pretty gross looking oozing etc., from my nose, and don't want to go back to work until I have a handle on all of that.

I’ve had a few major abdominal surgeries and the surgeon has never done it for longer than a week- I’ve always called the GP and not needed to see someone face to face as they have a note of my operation. They then give me one for a month at a time and I extend as I see necessary.

i hope you’re recovering well, please don’t worry about this, there’s no reason the GP won’t give you a note.

You can request an extension to existing fit note via your NHS app. Normally you have to request it the day it expires or the day before. You will have a section where you can explain why you are requesting the extension so you can explain in there that you had an operation, explain your symptoms and say you have not fully recovered so do not feel fit to return to work.

Wishing you a speedy recovery

It's so stupid isn't it? I guess it's just to save them time.

Thank you! I've never had surgery or needed a sick note before, so I don't know anything about this sort of thing

Oh, perfect, thank you!

I had a broken tibia and my consultant gave me a sick note for 6 weeks that run out last month and I just rang my doctor and asked for a new one and they rang me when it was ready to collect . Sometimes they may make you an appointment just to see if everything is as it should be I’m guessing . I got another for a month from the doctor . I heard the receptionist on the phone when I was in the surgery and she told someone the longest they can do is a month without the doctor . You can keep getting fit notes til you are ready to go bk to work ,

That's absolutely wrong, I'm a GP who has a role in pathways like that and your surgeon is clearly one of those who thinks the GP is his secretary. Google (name of hospital) PALS and make a formal complaint, explaining that you now understand that it is the hospital's contractual obligation to give you a fit note for the full amount of the expected time off and that they need to send it to you asap.

Afraid this isn't necessarily true. If I was your GP I'd give you the advice above. Depends how fed up your GP is, but if the surgeons do this all the time then I would hope that they are quite robust about making them clear up their own mess.

I really don't have the energy to get into a dispute etc. with my GP and the hospital right now

You may have no choice if you need the fit note.

My GP issue sick notes - my mum was there this morning and they will issue them as a walk in basis, they just call on an available clinician to come and see you to sign it.

yes but this is a sligthtly different issue of the hospital not doing its job and if the practice has any sense, they will be bouncing every single one back (as we do) - after a while, the consultant learns.

This doesn't help the OP,but her ire should be firmly aimed at the consultant not the GP. How dare the surgeon treat her in such a dismissive way? @ScuderiaSedici if you haven't got the energy to complain now, make sure you do it when you recover, and push for an apology.

I don’t have any ire, im just knackered.

Dh is recovering from an op /cancer atm. He was signed off for 6 weeks by the hospital then just did an E consult form and the GP now signs him off every 6 weeks and has done for the last 4 months. Absolutely no issue at all .

Thanks - by all accounts it should be pretty easy

Also @bluecurtains14 I have other issues with the consultant, but don't want to make a complaint until I've had my follow up appointment with the surgeon. He hasn't given me any info about my post-op care, so I'm totally winging that

Easiest option for you is to put a request in with your GP to extend it - although it isn’t their job and the hospital should have signed you off for the expected duration. However more and more practices are pushing back on hospitals not doing their own work (the sick notes and medication changes and blood test requests etc which the hospital are paid to do but get transferred to GPs add up to a lot of time / resource). Therefore I’d ask in plenty of time - they’d be within their rights to refuse and direct you to PALS for the hospital to sort.

I don't want to make a complaint until such time as I've had my follow up appointment though, to avoid making it awkward

He sounds awful. You'd probably be better off with follow-up from someone who is vaguely competent. Realise you're in a tricky situation but please raise hell when you feel better.

Absolutely - your GP may or may not push back at the hospital but if they do it won’t reflect on you - some practices have a blanket policy. Ours does the note to avoid disruption for the patient but also writes to the hospital team reminding them of their responsibilities.

Oh I'll definitely be making a complaint - I don’t know what he actually did to my sinuses, I've been relying on ChatGPT and google for advice on my symptoms post surgery, and I've just generally been a bit abandoned. But I also need him to clear me for my holiday in my follow up, so I don't want to rock the boat too much 😭

I understand it must be frustrating for gps but dont put patients in the middle. If you dont like it you complain to the surgeon

Are you the poster who literally had surgery yesterday

Oh believe me we do, and plenty have changed their actions. Unfortunately, if you don't send the work back to them to do, nothing changes and the complaints are ignored. It is the surgeon putting the patient in the middle by an absolutely unprofessional refusal to write the correct amount of time on the fit note, not the GP.

I know i do get where your coming from and im absolutely not sticking up for surgeons as stuff like this is 100% their fault but there can be very real consequences for patients who put in complaints especially against surgeons.

And there are consequences for patiwnt who can't see their GP because of the time this stuff takes GPs. I could see several more patients per day if secondary care did their own work.