Doctors still oppose the idea of pharmacists issuing medical certificates, despite new figures revealing that GPs are spending more and more time writing sick notes.
A report issued yesterday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare revealed that patients are asking GPs to write twice as many sickness certificates as they did a decade ago. GPs wrote 920,000 more sickness certificates in 2006-07 than in 1998-99, with one in 60 patients visiting their doctor primarily to get a certificate.
Dr John Gullotta, chair of the AMA's therapeutics committee, said that while the Howard government's industrial relations changes allowing employers to demand a medical certificate for any sick leave taken had increased the workload on time-pressured GPs, he did not think pharmacists should help relieve the burden.
"We still oppose non-doctors issuing medical certificates. If people are ill they should be seeing their doctor. Doctors are trained to diagnose and provide appropriate care for illnesses," he said. "The sick certificate will be undermined if everyone can give it out - you might as well put it on the internet and people can order their own."
Dr Gullotta said a patient visiting their doctor to get a certificate was not a waste of time or health resources because any consultation would involve a health check-up.
"It's not a waste of time; it's a way of capturing a patient who might not otherwise visit their doctor. While they are there you take their blood pressure and talk about other health issues, things can be picked up."
He said employers should be more lenient towards sick days so that workers were not required to get a certificate for every day of leave.
The PSA and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia released joint Guidelines on Pharmacists Issuing Medical Certificates earlier this month.