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Our public advocacy efforts on administrative burden reached a major milestone this week with the launch of a new campaign, Sick of Sick Notes. Physician feedback has prioritized and guided our work, and that is much appreciated. 

What’s new:

Earlier this week, our President Dr. Nichelle Desilets unveiled our new campaign that calls for collective action from employers, government leaders and the public at large with three key parts: 

1. New guidance for employers: We called on employers and other organizations to eliminate sick notes, and released new guidance to help them start. A comprehensive toolkit will follow. All this was developed in collaboration with business, employer, labour, and HR leaders we have recruited, who understand they have a role to play in improving health care by reducing physicians’ administrative burden.
2. Definitive recommendations to government: We recently submitted recommendations to the province to legislate the elimination of sick notes across all sectors. Manitoba is one of only two provinces that hasn’t taken any action to limit the use of sick notes. We have been in touch with the province every step of the way, encouraging them to act, and we are hopeful for substantial and meaningful steps from them in the near future.
3. New social media ad: We’re taking our campaign to the public to highlight that we don’t send medical problems to the Human Resources department, so why send HR issues to the doctor? That’s the main message in our light-hearted video that helps the public understand the true cost and impact sick notes have. 
   

Early results:

We are already seeing employers jump on board, including Canada Life, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, and Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority. They have already eliminated sick note requirements for short-term illnesses and we look forward to seeing more action. 

What’s next:

We will continue to push for the end of sick notes, while we gear up the second phase of our project looking at other common requests from employers, such as accommodation notes, functional assessments, and return-to-work forms. Stay tuned for more action on that in the months ahead! 

Government response:

Pressed by reporters at another event on whether the government is committed to eliminating sick notes, Minister Asagwara signaled strong interest in coming to a decision and noted conversations are in the works. ​“Our priority is making sure that physicians want to work and practice in Manitoba, that we’re lightening their administrative burden, that we’re supporting employees to have the work-life balance that they need as well,” they said. ​“We just want to make sure we’re doing it the right way, so we are making sure that we’re having all those conversations — doing the consultation.” 

What it means for you:

We know sick notes divert physicians away from patient care, contributing to tens of thousands of hours of paperwork time and hundreds of thousands of unnecessary medical visits. Eliminating sick notes will help to free up about 300,000 appointments annually, the equivalent of adding more than 50 doctors to our province. 

Our campaign has been featured by CBC, Global, the Free Press and many other outlets across the province. Let’s keep the momentum going! Please share these articles and our social media posts to generate as much interest as we can.

In addition to internal resources from Doctors Manitoba, this initiative is supported by the Health Care Unburdened Grant. This grant program is part of the Canadian Medical Association, MD Financial Management Inc. and Scotiabank’s long-standing, joint commitment to supporting physicians and the communities they serve across Canada.