Health professionals can support their patients in their employment by:
– having an awareness of their rights and responsibilities as employees
– giving careful consideration to and being realistic with their patients about how their diagnosis and treatment will impact on their work.
– timing their appointments around their patient’s work obligations wherever possible
– always offering medical certificates that are realistic in terms of their coverage; and
– providing written or other information (at the patient’s request) that they can give to their employers as evidence to support whatever reasonable adjustments might be required.