Sickness certification of workers compensation claimants by general practitioners in Victoria, 2003-2010

Objective: To examine patterns of the sickness certification of workers compensation claimants by general practitioners in Victoria, Australia, by nature of injury or illness. Design, setting and patients: Retrospective analysis of Victorian workers compensation data for all injured and ill workers with an accepted workers compensation claim between 2003 and 2010. Main outcome measures: Type (unfit for work, alternative duties, or fit for work) and duration of initial medical certificates relating to workers compensation claims that were issued by GPs, in six categories of injury and illness. Results: Of 124 424 initial medical certificates issued by GPs, 74.1 recommended that workers were unfit for work and 22.8 recommended alternative duties. Unfit-for-work certificates were issued to 94.1 of workers with mental health conditions, 81.3 of those with fractures, 79.1 of those with other traumatic injuries, 77.6 of those with back pain and strains, 68.0 of those with musculoskeletal conditions and 53.0 of those with other diseases. Alternative-duties certificates were significantly longer in duration than unfit-for-work certificates in all injury and illness categories (P