Docs push back against employers’ ‘doctor’s note’ requirement

While we take things on Reddit with a grain of salt, we nonetheless are hoping this story of an angry doctor, who objected to having to write a note to a patient’s boss, is true.

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We’re not sure it’s legit since the person who posted it said it was his “friend” who had to get the note.

It urges the employer (said to be in Alberta) to drop the policy against requiring a note from the doctor when an employee is sick.

The CBC says this isn’t the first time a doc has taken a stand. Nova Scotia physician Ethel Cooper-Rosen includes an invoice to employers when she’s required to write a note.

“I have every right to charge for it.… We’re trying to clear up space for patients who are sick,” she told the CBC last fall when the issue flared up. “Our duty clinics are very busy. We also don’t want patients with these mild viral illnesses sitting in our offices with patients who are sick and they have compromised immune systems and can pick up these illnesses. We have babies in there who can pick up the illnesses. So we would like them to stay home,” Cooper-Rosen said.

Why would an employer require a doctor’s note? Because a lot of times employees aren’t really sick when they call in sick.

Or so we’ve heard.