What are the reasons to shorten the sick leave?
There are several reasons why a patient may wish to return to work earlier despite a week’s sick leave. The most common reason is that the person feels fit for work again. If someone feels healthy enough to return to work earlier, they can simply do so.
One can simply go back to work or, if necessary, inform the employer in advance. Other reasons may be that the person concerned has no choice but to go to work for economic or internal company reasons. Once a sick note has been issued, it is valid. If the affected patient feels healthy again earlier, he or she can go back to work. A shortening of the sick note by the doctor is not carried out in this way in Germany.
Can the doctor refuse with a sick note for a cold?
Doctors adhere to the law governing the medical profession when exercising their medical activities. According to the law governing the medical profession, a physician is obliged to take all measures based on well-founded assessments and facts and to act accordingly. A description of incapacity to work due to a cold is considered such a medical measure.
This means that a physician may refuse a patient’s request for a sick note due to a cold. A doctor is not obliged to write a sick note for every patient with a cold. He judges the situations and makes decisions according to his own knowledge and discretion.
Which doctor will write me sick?
If a cold causes such strong complaints that one does not feel able to work and would like to get a sick note, one should visit the family doctor as first point of contact. The family doctor is the doctor who is there for such measures. For example, the family doctor can put a patient on sick leave for seven days and ask him to come back on the seventh day if the cold symptoms still persist. This is the easiest way for the patient to get a sick note for the required period. If the patient has a cold, a specialist can also write a sick note, for example an ENT specialist.Since you usually need a referral for a visit to an ENT physician, which you get from your family doctor, you can save the double way and get a sick note directly from your family doctor
All articles in this series:
