Disagree with a Fully Unfit medical certificate?
Med Certs – did you know?
Medical certificates – for some, a genuine need, for others, an ACC funded holiday – and yes, claimants on ACC can go overseas for a holiday and get paid by ACC as long as the aforementioned medical certificate is active…
ACC have issued guidelines around medical certificates published May 2023 which they and the Medical Council want doctors to follow.
As a sidenote, you can actually send workers directly to a physio bypassing the need for medical certificates… just saying.
The guidelines:
1] Fit for selected work
This person is able to engage in active rehabilitation or some work with the following support:
Amended duties - changing duties to take account of a condition.
Altered hours - changing the times or duration of work.
Workplace adaptations - changing aspects of the workplace.
A phased return to work - a gradual increase in work duties or hours.
2] Fully unfit (FUF)
To be certified as fully unfit, the patient would fit into one or more of the following criteria:
Total inability - this person is admitted to hospital, or confined to bed.
Contagion risk or quarantine need - there is a risk of contagion or a need for quarantine as a result of an ACC covered injury, and this person is unable to work remotely.
Health and safety risk - being in the workplace, even with assistance or modifications, poses a specific health and safety hazard to this person, their co-workers, or the general public.
3] Fully fit
This person is able to undertake their full pre-injury job duties and hours.
Having spoken to a number of doctors over the last year, there is a consistent message – the doctor can only make a decision on the basis of the information in front of them. If no information to support alternative duties is presented, then there’s a very good chance that the doctor will sign off the employee as FUF.
There are few situations where there is a genuine fully unfit situation, the vast majority of claimants would fit into the fit for selected work category.
So – if you have a med cert that states ‘fully unfit’ questions to ask the doctor (yep, don’t be shy you have the right to know when something is impacting your business):
Are you aware of any financial implications of issuing a fully unfit medical certificate for the patient and their income? (they have to take this into account as most employees will only get 80% of their income).
Are you aware of the light duties available that the employer has available to enable the employee to continue to earn 100% of their income while safely recovering from their injury?
Are there any barriers the employer needs to consider for the employee to return to work?
There are no identified safety issues in the workplace for the employees return. What safety factors were you aware of when issuing the fully unfit medical certificate?
A common scenario we come across is where the claimant shops around for a doctor to provide a FUF – you should always check the name of the doctor and the medical clinic on each med cert. If the name of the clinic changes, there’s a good chance the employee is angling for holiday options.
Questions to ask in this case:
Were you aware that the employee had seen a different doctor prior to seeing you and that doctor had issued a restricted duties med cert?
If so, what factors of the previous medical certificate did you take into account when issuing the current certificate?