Non-urgent advice: Secondary care (hospital) discharge
From 1st October 2026, every patient discharged from secondary care (hospital) should be issued a fit note (Med 3) at the point of assessment or discharge, covering the full expected duration of any resulting absence from work. This is the responsibility of the secondary care clinician managing that episode of care.
If you are discharged from hospital and need a fit note, please ask the hospital doctor or clinician caring for you before you leave. GP practices are not responsible for issuing fit notes for conditions being managed by the hospital immediately following your discharge. If your fit note expires and you remain under the care of the hospital team for the same condition, you should contact the hospital department responsible for your treatment.
If you are discharged from hospital and need a fit note, please ask the hospital doctor or clinician caring for you before you leave. GP practices are not responsible for issuing fit notes for conditions being managed by the hospital immediately following your discharge. If your fit note expires and you remain under the care of the hospital team for the same condition, you should contact the hospital department responsible for your treatment.
Requesting Sick (Fit) note
If you’ve been off sick for more than 7 days
To request a sick note:
- fill out a sick note request form
- phone or visit the surgery from 10am to 6pm
If you’ve been off sick for 7 days or less
If you’re off work sick for 7 days or less, your employer should not ask for medical evidence that you’ve been ill. Instead, they can ask you to confirm that you’ve been ill. You can do this by filling in a form yourself when you return to work. We call this self-certification.
Find out more about sick notes on the NHS website.