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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Rowena Mason and Patrick Butler

Sunak to cite Britain’s ‘sicknote culture’ in bid to overhaul fit note system

A doctor writing a fit note
The government is planning to trial the issuing of fit notes, until last year overseen by GPs, by ‘work and health professionals’. Photograph: Natalia Gdovskaia/Getty Images

Rishi Sunak will today claim Britain is suffering from a “sicknote culture”, as he warns there is a risk of “over-medicalising” normal worries by diagnosing them as mental health conditions.

In a speech on how to reduce people being signed off sick from work, the prime minister will say the government is planning to trial getting “work and health professionals” to issue fit notes, shifting away from GPs carrying out this role.

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