[Dr] Max Mollenkopf estimates he sees two or three patients each day at his GP practice in Mulubinba/Newcastle who don’t need treatment but require a medical certificate for work.
For employees, a trip to the doctor for a medical certificate can be time-consuming and costly, especially if your appointment isn’t bulk-billed.
Meanwhile, these appointments can take clinical time from people who are genuinely sick, Dr Mollenkopf says.
“If someone is sick and they want to see me, every day of the week I want them to be able to come in,” he says.
“I didn’t sign up to do medicine to do HR policy on behalf of large corporations.”
Yes, and I’m saying that calculation does not need to change.
A big chain like woolies could probably predict their worker illness quite accurately.
A small business with 5 employees could have 3 sock at once that ruins their cash flow.
Having that as a shared cost, similar to workers comp where the business pays but the employee benefits would help small businesses. They would have note even cash flow.
I understand how the labour laws work. I’m saying there is scope to improve them and extend them while improving competition. All the while, taking a burden off taxpayers whonpay for medicare and freeing up doctors time.
But, yeah, keep saying its baked in and there is no way we could possibly improve workplace sickness laws. The GPS say its bad already. Workers don’t want to go to the doctor when they have a cold. Businesses don’t want people pullign a Sickie and most of their colleagues don’t want to pick up the slack for workers who are no show.