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Why this GP wants employers to stop asking for medical certificates (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

[Dr] Max Mollenkopf estimates he sees two or three patients each day at his GP practice in Mulubinba/Newcastle who don't need treatment but require a medical certificate for work.

For employees, a trip to the doctor for a medical certificate can be time-consuming and costly, especially if your appointment isn’t bulk-billed.

Meanwhile, these appointments can take clinical time from people who are genuinely sick, Dr Mollenkopf says.

"If someone is sick and they want to see me, every day of the week I want them to be able to come in," he says.

"I didn't sign up to do medicine to do HR policy on behalf of large corporations."

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Genuine question. GPs complain about the complexity of cases increasing and therefore higher Medicare rates should apply. While I completely agree with this (my GP 1000% needs to be paid more), shouldn't that mean that they like low complexity visits like this? Bring someone in, sign med cert, you are on your way. They have probably spent 5-10mins of a 15min appointment and can use that time to catch up.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The overhead, in manhours, paperwork, and simply room-time doesn't go away for low/no complexity cases, it simply reduces available capacity for the practice. These are people who would, generally, just stay at home for a few days to recover normally and only engage with a doctor if the symptoms persisted, and are only in to see a doctor so they get that paper. A paper which only exists to prevent people from 'abusing' sick days.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Not to mention there's no magical force at doctors' offices that prevents illness from spreading, so you could get others sick and they could get you even more sick.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

It wastes an hour or more every day, for every GP. That's a huge waste of resources and unnecessary increase in demand, which means less availability for patients who are actually sick.

Believe it or not, most doctors actually want to help people rather than be a cog in some bureaucratic machine.