We'll give you a sick note because we're too scared to say no! GPs admit they ... trends now
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GPs working in the NHS are routinely writing sick notes for patients they have not seen, doctors have claimed.
Family doctors admit that '95 per cent' of requests for time off are waved through after an email request without any further assessment.
They also admit sick notes are 'rarely ever' denied.
Some claim that doctors are 'too scared to refuse' sick notes because they worry patients will become aggressive or write a negative review of the GP practice on social media.
'We don't want to risk confrontation,' claimed one GP based in the North of England. 'Often, we don't know the patient. We just see the request in our inbox and okay it.'
In a major speech today, Rishi Sunak will warn that a surge in people signed off sick with mental health conditions is placing 'unsustainable' pressure on the welfare budget
The revelation comes after Rishi Sunak announced plans today to strip GPs of their power to sign people off work.
The Prime Minister described the move as an effort to tackle the UK's 'sick note culture' which was causing a 'spiralling' welfare bill due to the record number of people out-of-work with illness.
Latest figures suggest 2.8 million Britons are 'economically inactive' due to ill health. Around half are signed off with depression, anxiety and bad nerves.
Sunak added that it was time to be 'more honest about the risk of over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life'.
Labour criticised the plan, arguing that the Government had 'run out of ideas'. Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer accused Sunak of 'blaming people who are ill'.
