Sick of sick notes: Doctors say scrapping paperwork would save time better spent on patients

The Cure is a CBC News series examining strategies provinces and territories are using to tackle the primary care crisis.

With Canada currently in the depths of the cold and flu season and COVID continuing to spread year round, frustrated doctors say they don't want to waste time writing notes to excuse people from school or work. 

In fact, most doctors across the country want sick notes for minor illnesses eliminated altogether.

"Come on people, these are grown-ups," said Dr. Rita McCracken, a family physician and primary care researcher based in Vancouver. "If they have a cold and they are spewing germs and they're making a good call to stay home from work, they don't need to bring those germs into my office to get a note so that you can feel better about them not coming to work."

An estimated 6.5 million candidates don't have access to primary care, and a separate report from Health Canada estimates the country needs 23,000 family doctors to fill the gap.

Doctors in Canada wrote about 12.5 million sick notes last year, according to Dr. Joss Reimer, president of the Canadian Medical Association. She says eliminating sick notes could allow the doctors we do have to care for more people and make their practices more efficient.

How do you think policies around sick notes and medical forms should change? Share your thoughts via email at ask@cbc.ca

"Our family docs spend between 10 to 19 hours a week on paperwork," Reimer said, adding that things like filling out forms and writing sick notes is exhaustive work that takes them away from seeing patients, which is what they're trained to do.

Some provinces are making moves to curb the use of sick notes. 

In Nova Scotia, employers can't demand a note unless a worker has been off sick for more than five consecutive days. Saskatchewan has similar legislation pending. In Ontario and Quebec, it's three days.

Newfoundland and Labrador removed provisions in the Labour Standards Act that required notes after three days, however, employers in that province are still free to create their own sick leave policies.

But sick notes aren't the only aspect of paperwork doctors say they're drowning under.

"In an average week, I'm probably spending four to eight hours doing paperwork," said Dr. Steve Major, a family doctor in St. John's who is also the president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association. 

He says that includes disability forms, disability tax credit forms, Canada pension forms and lawyer reports. The disability tax credit forms are the most cumbersome because he says they can range from 14 to 16 pages.