For a few weeks now, our patients have been coughing and blowing their nose in the waiting room again. Viral infections are “in vogue”. The typical flu patients are giving each other a run for their money. “For the past three or four days, I have had a pain in my limbs and headache and suffer from an unbearable cough. Today I’m already feeling a little better,” the patient reports. I can easily confirm the diagnosis of a flu-like infection. So he should continue to take his home remedies and I discharge him from my treatment with the note that he should contact me again if the complaints persist or if the condition worsens. For a few weeks now, our patients have been coughing and blowing their nose in the waiting room again. Viral infections are “in vogue”. The typical flu patients are giving each other a run for their money. “For the past three or four days, I have had a pain in my limbs and headache and suffer from an unbearable cough. Today I’m already feeling a little better,” the patient reports. I can easily confirm the diagnosis of a flu-like infection. So he should continue to take his home remedies and I discharge him from my treatment with the note that if the symptoms persist or the condition worsens, he should contact me again.
At the end of the consultation, the patient asks for a certificate of incapacity because he has been absent from work since Friday due to illness. He says that he will certainly not be able to work this week either. So today Monday he wants a report card from me by the end of the week. However, if he is fit to return to work on Wednesday, he does not need a certificate because, as a rule, the employer does not require one until after three working days. So, should I issue a certificate to the patient by the end of the week, knowing that he will probably be fit for work again after two days and will be absent from work for two to three days without being sick? If I don’t give him the certificate he wants, he will call on Friday or make an emergency appearance at the office hours to ask me again for a certificate. He will explain to me that he was still so sick and therefore could not work.
I have two options: Either I believe him and issue it to him, or I don’t believe him and refuse to give him the certificate. I will probably turn it off.
What if he had appeared only after five days and I could not have detected any more viral symptoms? I would issue the certificate stating “according to the patient’s specifications.” Many patients come to us only to have their incapacity confirmed. As a rule, they require neither diagnostics nor therapy. They just want us to confirm that they are not lying to their employer. So often we issue a certificate that is worthless because we never even saw the patient sick. For ten francs we have to certify illness “according to the patient’s information”, as if we family doctors were lie detectors.
Do you always have only good feelings about it? Not me!
Cordially, your
