Doctors Manitoba says sick notes cost $8M annually

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This article was published 06/11/2024 (353 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Scott Blyth, a retired Brandon doctor says in his 40 years in practice, he was asked to write sick notes for his patients all the time and agrees with Doctors Manitoba and the Canadian Medical Association that while it may be a small task, it’s one that can take up a lot of valuable time.

“I used to get asked for a sick note all the time,” said Blyth. “And I always felt, gee maybe this is a tiny waste of my time, but the struggle is people are coming in and say they need it.

“I never said tough luck or that I didn’t believe them, so I produced the sick note.”

Doctors Manitoba, an advocacy organization for physicians, is calling for the elimination of sick notes for short-term minor illnesses and says there is research to prove that the time it takes, is costing taxpayers in Manitoba roughly $8 million a year.

The data comes from the Joint Task Force to Reduce Administrative Burdens for Physicians that was struck in February 2023 to dig into some of the roadblocks doctors face when it comes to excess paperwork and other administrative burdens.

Keir Johnson is co-chair of the task force and is Doctors Manitoba’s director of strategy, advocacy and communications.

“A sick note takes about three to four minutes to write, which doesn’t sound that bad, but individual physicians are doing five to six of these per week,” said Johnson.

“So, when you add that all up across the province, that’s about 36,000 hours to write all those notes. And with more than 600,000 sick notes per year, that’s an estimated $8 million in billing,” he said.

The Canadian Medical Association is also calling for sick notes to be eliminated for short-term minor illnesses.

According to data CMA released last week, about one in three working Canadians were asked by their employers to get a sick note for a short-term health absence at least once in the last year.

That translated to about 12.5 million sick notes a year, estimated the CMA.

Johnson said that not only do sick notes take away time that doctors could be spending seeing patients, but what’s “even worse,” he added, “in about a third of cases, the only reason the patient is coming to see the doctor is to get a sick note.”

“They don’t have any medical issues anymore, and most of the time, their symptoms have resolved by the time they get in to see their doctor. It’s an ineffective or false way of verifying that your employee is ill,” said Johnson.

Blyth said he agreed.

“Sometimes you’d be sitting in a chair looking at a person who’s completely well who got over their sickness. So, that makes it difficult because I haven’t seen this person, how can I verify they were sick?” he said.

“So, I think that employers should have flexible leave policies. I thought this back then when I was working: why don’t employers believe you? Why do I have to verify this?

“I think employers should be encouraged to have a paid medical leave when a person is sick, they won’t stay at work, where they really shouldn’t be. Because production goes down, and then everybody else in the office catches the illness too, and then you’re really in a pickle.”

The CMA’s position paper is not only calling for legislative changes to eliminate the requirement for sick notes but encourages alternatives including flexible leave policies.

Johnson said it was great to see CMA come out with a position that aligns with Doctors Manitoba and the task force, and the next step is to work with employers in the province to help them transition away from sick notes.

“We started a project that has received some national grant funding to try and develop a toolkit for employers on how to manage your sick time without requiring sick notes as a routine, so that work is underway,” he said.

“We’re trying to do this very collaboratively with employers, and we think that will be a big help as we look for a more definitive solution, like maybe a change in legislation.”

The final report from the task force was given to Manitoba’s health minister and Doctors Manitoba Oct. 11 with additional recommendations to reduce administrative burdens for physicians.

Those included reducing paperwork, creating standardized forms between medical providers, eliminating the need for doctors to sign requests for massages or psychologist prescriptions for insurance providers and making it easier for physicians to access electronic records system.

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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