A medical certificate note must be signed by a doctor. The Fit Notes mean your GP can give you advice to help you return to work. This is because work can play an important part in helping people to recover from illness on injury. The GP can either say you are not fit for work, or can say you may be fit for work. The GP will choose the option for may be fit to work if they think that returning to work – with support from your employer – will help you.

There is also space for the GP to give advice to your employer about the impact of your illness or injury and can suggest common ways in which your employer can help you return to work such as allowing you to work part time or temporarily or by changing your duties, for example, if you have back pain, avoiding heavy lifting.

Fit notes are also sometimes called doctor's notes, sick notes, medical certificates or doctor's statements.

If you have not seen a doctor at the practice and we have had no information from a medical professional about your illness, you will not be able to get a certificate without an appointment. Please book a routine appointment; urgent appointments are only provided for genuine medical emergencies and not for the purpose of certificates.

If you have seen a doctor at the practice regarding the problem then a receptionist may be able to request the sick note and you will not need to arrange an appointment to discuss things further.

In either case there are rules governing the issuing of sick certificates and the GP may not be able to supply one, depending on the information you provide.

Your employer 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.

Self-certification forms usually include details such as:

• information about your sickness or illness
• the date your sickness started
• the date your sickness ended

These dates may be days that you don't normally work. For example, your sickness could start or end on a Saturday, Sunday or bank holiday.

Many employers have their own self-certification forms. If your employer doesn't have their own form, instead they may use an SC2 form from HM Revenue & Customs Employee's Statement of Sickness.

Download a template self certification form

If you are sick and off work for more than seven days, your employer will normally ask you to provide a medical certificate from your GP. See our new Contact Us Online Page to fill out a sick note request form

When you need a certificate will also depend on your employer's company policy on sick leave (or sickness absence). This policy should tell you how many days you can be off sick before you need a note.

To find out about your employer's policy:

• ask your team leader or supervisor, or
• speak to someone from your human resources (HR) or personnel department

If you are likely to need a fit note (otherwise known as a sick note or MED 3) when you come out of hospital or following outpatient attendance, please ask the doctor treating you in hospital to provide you with one before you leave. This is because the decision on how long you need off work is made by the clinician who has assessed and treated you. If you have forgotten to do this, please contact the hospital and ask for a Fit note to be posted or texted to you.

Unfortunately, the process for providing Fit notes isn’t always well-understood by our hospital colleagues and we often hear our patients have been told things by our colleagues that aren’t always true. Here some myths and facts about this issue.  

“Consultants and junior doctors don’t write fit notes. Fit notes are a GP’s job” – FALSE. 

“The hospital just don’t have any fit note pads” – FALSE. 

“The hospital can only issue notes for one or two weeks at the very most” – FALSE.  

“The hospital can’t issue you with a fit note if you’ve only been to outpatients” – FALSE. 

“The hospital won’t be able to message me with my fit note or send it to me in the post” – FALSE. 

“The doctor who is treating you at the time has a statutory obligation to provide you with a fit note if you need one. This includes all hospital doctors” – TRUE.  

“The doctor who is treating you should sign you off for the appropriate time period according to the condition you have been treated for” – TRUE.  

“Both private and NHS doctors can issue fit notes” – TRUE.  

“It is part of the hospital’s contractual duty to issue a note. Failure to do so is breach of contract” – TRUE.  

This is an extract from the guidance from the Department of Work and Pensions about fit notes (also known as doctors’ statements or Med 3s in this text):  

Thousands of appointments and telephone calls with GPs are taken up each year by patients requesting fit notes when they could have been issued by hospital doctors providing treatment at the time. Please help us to keep our appointments free for patients who need our input, rather than for administrative paperwork that could have been dealt with by others at the end of your hospital visit.  

If you have trouble getting a fit note from the hospital, please contact PALS (Patient Advice Liaison Service) team: 

All UK employees should self-certify with employers for first 7 days of sick-leave (GPs only issue NHS sick-notes after first 7 days have been self-certified, so you will not need to see a doctor).

To count “sick days”, you need to count all the days in a row you’ve been sick, including days you don’t normally work such as weekends and bank holidays.

Many employers have their own self-certification forms. If your employer doesn’t have its own form you can download the Self Certification Form here.