Eliminating sick notes a very sensible solution

Recent changes to the labour code that came into force on Oct. 1 could have a beneficial impact on doctors hours around the province.

The Employment Standards Code Amendment Act (Bill 11) will stop employers from requiring employees to get a sick note from a physician unless the employee has been absent for more than a week, or has called in sick 10 or more times in a calendar year.

Doctors Manitoba has calculated that its members write more than 600,000 sick notes every year — a process that costs the provincial health-care system approximately $8 million annually.

And the effort doesn’t even help sick workers get better: one-third of sick notes are written for patients who don’t even have symptoms anymore, making them little more than a comfortable fiction.

To put it simply, doctors have to trust that a symptomless patient was sick and write a note saying they were ill, in order to satisfy an employer who doesn’t share that same level of trust.

Manitoba physicians shouldn’t end up being a cog in someone else’s flawed human resources issues.

Doctors Manitoba said last year that ending the practice would free up space for an additional 300,000 patient visits every year, let alone cancelling out part of the voluminous paperwork that burdens doctors on top of everything else.

“What may be a small change in the labour code can be a big step forward on improving access to medical care for all Manitobans and using our health-care resources wisely,” Doctors Manitoba board chair Dr. Nichelle Desilets said during a Sept. 29 news conference.

Think about it another way, perhaps in light of the health of the community — if a worker still has symptoms or is still infectious with a simple cold, flu or stomach ailment, why would you want to send them to the close quarters of a doctor’s waiting room?

For most common illnesses, a doctor won’t be able to prescribe more than the basics: get rest, drink lots of fluids, etc. All they really can do is write that all-important note.

Meanwhile, everyone who is in the waiting room for whatever reason — right on down to cancer patients and the immunocompromised waiting for something as simple as a regular checkup — runs the risk of getting whatever it is that you have.

And who among us hasn’t felt that they might have picked something new up while waiting for a regular doctor’s appointment?

Even sitting in the examining room while talking to your doctor, you might well be exposing a much-needed medical professional to a common illness that could take them out of commission for a few days. And all for a signed note that is more workplace theatre than useful tool.

Are there issues that employers have to deal with when it comes to perennially absent employees who seem to catch every single thing going and take more time than everyone else to recover? Of course. If you know anyone in management, you’ll also know they can cite regular, egregious abuse of sick leave by someone they manage.

But requiring doctors’ notes for every illness is just a tiring hoop for everyone to jump through — and a solution to nothing.

There’s a lot of common sense involved with how we should deal with the common illnesses that trip us up on and off throughout the year.

There’s also a lot of common sense involved in how we should treat adults in the workplace — and how we should use the valuable time of which a stressed health care system has too little.

The provincial government has made the right move here. It’s a common-sense prescription for the health-care system.

The only wonder is that it took so long to happen.

» Winnipeg Free Press and The Brandon Sun