Doctors in N.S. want employers to stop asking for sick notes - but the requests keep coming

Doctors Nova Scotia says physicians are seeing an increase in the number requests they're getting for sick notes, despite a request from the province's chief medical officer of health to employers to stop using them.

Dr. Robert Strang made the plea at his last briefing in mid-November, saying employers are putting "unnecessary pressure" on the healthcare system.

Despite that, Dr. Leisha Hawker, president of Doctors Nova Scotia, said physicians are still getting lots of requests to write the documents as COVID, the flu and other viruses spread through the province.

"I'm definitely seeing more requests and hearing it from more of my colleagues as well," Hawker said. "Employers need to look at other ways to manage their employees and think of other ways to assess their employees' ability to work."

Hawker said it's not just about time, but safety.

Sick patients should be home resting, but some feel compelled to work because they know it will be a struggle to get a note, she said.

"Or they're going to see their doctor and it's a busy waiting room where there's more vulnerable folks like babies, pregnant women and people with cancer and they're spreading it to others," she pointed out.

The dispute over sick notes is hardly new, and is not isolated to Nova Scotia.

Hawker always replies with a letter that was first designed by Doctors Nova Scotia about 15 years ago, telling employers to stop the practice. But she said demand is up once again, "aggravated" by the large volume of illness in the community.

Hawker is a family physician who also works in a newcomer clinic and the addictions clinic. She said most requests come from her most vulnerable patients at the two specialized clinics.

"I think that speaks to the marginalized populations where they're working jobs where they don't have that same level of trust from their employers."

Sick notes are also the target of an effort by the province to improve working conditions for physicians.

The Office of Regulatory Affairs and Service Effectiveness has a list of 15 administrative tasks placed on doctors that it is trying to eliminate – with sick notes near the top.

Leanne Hachey, the executive director, said reducing red tape could make a considerable difference to the province's overtaxed healthcare system.