The Canadian Medical Association is calling for an end to workplace sick note requirements for short-term absences from work.

And the NLMA agrees.

President Dr. Steve Major says the province is in a health care crisis and there are better things for physicians on which to be focusing their time.

“And when a patient has to make an appointment just to receive a note, that takes an appointment from somebody to has to be seen,” says Major. He says physicians’ role is not to be the custodian of that information, that’s between the employer and their workers.

The same is true of clearance notes required by childcare centres and employers to return to work or a child care setting.

In the midst of “bad September and October where we had a ton of pneumonia and COVID and all sorts of illnesses” requiring a clearance note in a crisis “is not the right use of our time.”