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We should target fit notes

I do not support the strike as I feel strikes only ever hurt the public more than the Government, but as a BMA member feel I need to support all my fellow union members.

GPs won an 18% pay rise 30 years or so ago by refusing to sign Med 3 certificates.

This caused a lot of disruption without adversely affecting clinical care, and resulted in a significant pay rise.

Rather than action that is unpopular with patients and causes some clinical disquiet (as all patients feel they are ‘urgent'), something smaller but significant and applicable across the board may have a better impact.

Doctors still wrote private certificates (at a discretionary charge) and so did not necessarily cause a problem for patients.

Perhaps this is something that could be looked up in the archives, shared and considered.

From Dr Mina Goyal, Dagenham