If you’ve been off sick for more than 7 days
To request a sick note:
- fill out a sick note request form
- phone or visit the surgery from 10am to 6pm
If you’ve been off sick for 7 days or less
If you’re off work sick for 7 days or less, your employer should not ask for medical evidence that you’ve been ill. Instead, they can ask you to confirm that you’ve been ill. You can do this by filling in a form yourself when you return to work. We call this self-certification.
Find out more about sick notes on the NHS website.
When do I need a fit note?
If you’re off work sick for seven days or less, your employer should not ask for medical evidence that you’ve been ill. Instead they can ask you to confirm that you’ve been ill. You can do this by filling in a form yourself when you return to work. This is called self-certification. Please do not request a fit note if you have not yet been off work sick for more than seven days (if you do, your request either may be rejected outright, or you may be advised to ‘self-certify’).
If you’re off work sick for more than seven days, your employer will usually ask for a fit note (or Statement of Fitness for Work) from a healthcare professional. Fit notes are sometimes referred to as sick notes, medical statements or doctor’s notes.
*When working out how many days you have been off sick, you should count in calendar days, not working days (therefore non-working days and Annual Leave etc. should be counted) – e.g. if you normally work Monday to Friday and were sick Monday to Monday inclusive, this counts as eight days not six (because Saturday & Sunday are included).
How can I get a fit note?
If you have been off work sick for more than seven days and your employer has asked for a fit note, make a phone appointment to speak to your preferred GP. This should not be an ‘on-the-day’ appointment, it should instead be a ‘in advance’ appointment (fit notes can be back-dated – for this reason, please note, requests for fit notes are not deemed an appropriate reason for booking an ‘urgent’ appointment). More information on appointments is available on the Appointments page of this website.
The GP will assess you, and if they decide your health affects your fitness for work, they can issue a fit note and advise either that:
- you are “not fit for work”
- you “may be fit for work taking into account the following advice”
The GP will choose the “may be fit for work…” option above if they think that you are able to do some work, even if it is not your usual job, with support from your employer.
Discuss this advice with your employer to see if you can return to work. For example, the GP may suggest possible changes, such as:
- returning to work gradually, for example, by starting part time
- temporarily working different hours
- performing different duties or tasks
- having other support to do your job. For example, if you have back pain, avoiding heavy lifting
If your employer is unable to accommodate the changes advised by a healthcare professional, then the fit note is treated as though it said “not fit for work”.
The GP will decide how long their advice will last until you need re-assessing and will specify this on the fit note.
How can I extend an existing fit note?
Once you have reached the end of the period that the GP decided their advice would last until, if you are still sick, your fit note may be able to be extended. To do this, you may not need an appointment, please submit a request via this link.
Please note, recurrence of a previous problem will require a new fit note, not an extension of a previous one, please follow the advice from the top of this page – e.g. if you had a fit note to cover March for back pain, that resolved itself allowing you to work in April and May, that then re-occurred in June, that would not be able to be extended, a new fit note commencing in June would be required.
Charges for fit notes
There is never a charge from a GP for providing a fit note if you’re off sick from work for more than 7 days.