‘My job is to provide health care to Islanders. My job is not to fill out forms for employers,' says doctor
Prince Edward Island’s policy around sick notes is making headlines, as doctors and labour experts call for limits on employers’ ability to demand medical notes for short‑term illness.
Emergency physician Kay Dingwell of Prince County Hospital in Summerside told CBC that every shift now includes patients who wait hours in the emergency department solely to obtain a sick note for work, rather than medical treatment. She said that has become a routine part of her workload despite having little to do with direct patient care.
“That person has been sitting beside chemo patients, newborn babies and frail elderly people in my waiting room for 12 hours because they know that they don’t actually require medical care, but just need someone to say this person is sick and shouldn’t go to work,” Dingwell said in an interview with CBC. “It’s common sense. It shouldn’t require me.”
Under Prince Edward Island’s current Employment Standards Act, employers may require a note from a medical practitioner after three consecutive days of absence. Dingwell said that rule is frustrating for health‑care workers and patients, and may lead some employees to give up and go to work sick, exposing colleagues and vulnerable people to illness.
“My job is to provide health care to Islanders. My job is not to fill out forms for employers,” she told CBC. “This is public dollars being put into...
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