Xeroxed medical certificates?

There is a shortage of forms for temporary inability to work, or more simply, medical certificates in Vinnytsa clinics. This is not because Vinnytsa residents have started to get ill more often, but simply because the clinics don’t have enough. And in order to give their employers the documents testifying that they weren’t skiving, but were ill during the days they didn’t turn up at work, Vinnytsa residents have to photocopy the documents themselves, then get them authorized by the administration of the medical institution.  Or telephone to the clinic, trying to find out if they can get a medical certificate. If the forms have arrived, they’ll have to wait in the same queue as ordinary patients. And autumn’s just around the corner, colds, etc. There will l be more patients, the queues will be longer – will there still not be enough forms?

—  “We’ve had the problem with the medical certificate forms for about three months already,” Oleksandr Chaban, deputy head of the department of health care in the city executive committee explains. “And it’s not only in the Vinnytsa region, but in other regions also. The problem is that they’re printed centrally, and ordered only by the Ministry of Health, and they send them to the regions according to the needs of health care institutions. Our request to be provided with the necessary quantity of forms have still not been met … we’re just waiting, together with the people who are ill.

However, according to paragraph No. 8.5 of the Instruction «On the procedure for issuing documents which confirm temporary inability to work” approved by Ministry of Health Order No. 455 from 13 November 2001, in cases where infringements are uncovered in issuing, storing, and registering such documents, the treatment or prophylactic institutions may have their right to issue the documents removed in the legally established manner.

Why must medical employees in the regions answer for problems which those “above” can’t resolve? After all it’s they first of all who should take care of our health.

From the PL editorial office

There is a similar problem in Kharkiv. Doctors from the Ambulance Service have also approached us complaining that instead of the correct forms  they are forced to give patients slips which, as well as the doctor’s signature, also bear an additional signature of the person in charge of the unit and the chief doctor. This means that the medical personnel waste extra time on getting such documents and their patients give them to the management of their organizations with a covering note from the Control-Auditing Administration of Ukraine. Since current legislation stipulates that “a medical certificate is a multifunctional document providing grounds for being released from work due to illness and with material provision for the insured individual in the event of temporary illness, pregnancy and childbirth” (Joint Order  “On approving the form and technical description of a medical certificate and instructions on the procedure for filling in the form on temporary inability to work” from 03.11.2004 N 532/274/136-os/1406», issued by Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Employment and Social Policy of Ukraine, the Social Insurance Fund for Temporary disability and the Industrial accident and occupational diseases which have caused disability Fund)

PS  We have learned that the Ministry of Health has sent a letter to the regions with recommendations as to how to get around the situation with forms for medical certificates. One wonders whether they have agreed this with the relevant bodies.

(an extract from the form)

Bearing in mind the situation, which has arisen in the regions, we suggest in the case of a shortage of medical certificate forms issuing forms with the following information;

Whether the illness is “first” or “repeated”;

The name and address of the medical establishment

The date the certificate was issued

Surname, name and patronymic of the patient

Full age

Full name and address of the institution, enterprise or organization

The patient’s diagnosis

The cause of the inability to work

Where there was hospital treatment, the dates of hospitalization and discharge

In the case of a referral, the date and signature of the head of the medical commission;

The date of examination and conclusion of the medical examination with the signature of the person in charge and st

The period of inability to work, with all relevant dates and signatures

The date of the return to work, giving the post and name of the doctor, and the latter’s signature and the stamp of the medical establishment.  In the case of extension, writing  “remains ill”, in case of death – “Deceased”  and the date of death.

The certificate should be signed by the Head Doctor of the clinic, etc, with the latter’s round stamp. The issue of such certificates is registered in the control register of medical certificates 036/0.

The procedure for issuing and registering such certificates should meet the requirements of the Instruction on the order of issue of the documents testifying temporary disability.

 The Deputy Minister

Y.. Haidaev