Sick-Note Britain

the long version

The NHS is stretched to its limits. Yet doctors are writing 10 million sick-notes a year for ailments they cannot cure, consuming money better spent on increasing disability benefits, and leaving the ill who could be treated unable to get an appointment. Dr Adrian Massey has worked at the intersection of medicine and society for decades. He argues compellingly that our hypermedicalised society has falsely equated sickness with illness, and sickness with unfitness to work - whereas sickness is primarily a social problem requiring social, not medical, solutions. This title lays bare Britain's gross error: when doctors cannot 'fix' anxiety or chronic pain, workplace attendance is still treated as a matter for arbitration by our strained primary care service.