Rishi Sunak has announced plans to trial stripping GPs of their power to sign people off work, as he attacked the UK's "sick note culture" in a speech about welfare.
Instead he wants specialist work and health professionals to issue fit notes as part of a broader aim to make sick notes harder to obtain.
Doctors' union the British Medical Association (BMA) said fit notes were carefully considered before they are written and criticised Mr Sunak's "hostile rhetoric" on the issue.
Meanwhile Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that "as a profession we are not against the idea" because of high workloads but pointed out that issuing fit notes often formed part of a wider consultation with a patient.
The specialists will be Government appointed just like the (independent) pay review body
Instead he wants specialist work and health professionals to issue fit notes as part of a broader aim to make sick notes harder to obtain.
Doctors' union the British Medical Association (BMA) said fit notes were carefully considered before they are written and criticised Mr Sunak's "hostile rhetoric" on the issue.
Meanwhile Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that "as a profession we are not against the idea" because of high workloads but pointed out that issuing fit notes often formed part of a wider consultation with a patient.
The specialists will be Government appointed just like the (independent) pay review body