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New research indicates that 9 million sick note requests by
UK workers are either suspect or downright dishonest. Doctors
receive 22 million authentication requests every year - about
577 each - of which a quarter are thought to be dubious and a
fifth are considered completely invalid.
The findings come from a survey of more than 250 GPs by Norwich
Union Healthcare.
The report also revealed that 3 million of the UK's workers
would consider asking their doctor for a bogus sick note, with
twice as many men as women prepared to cheat the boss.
More than a fifth of doctors said up to 20% of their patients
were unable to work because of ill health. However, four in ten
said that more than a third of signed-off patients could actually
work a few hours a day.
One of the GPs who took part in the research, said: "GPs
want to treat genuinely ill patients and don't want to act as
policemen, identifying those who are claiming bogus sick notes.
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