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Wednesday, 25 January 2006
MP welcomes initiative to place employment advisors in GP surgeries
Dartford MP, Dr Howard Stoate, has welcomed a proposal by Work and Pensions Secretary, John Hutton to put employment advisors in GP surgeries to help patients remain or return to work after illness.

In a statement to the House of Commons yesterday about the Government’s new welfare reform green paper, Mr Hutton said;

“The Green Paper sets out proposals to improve workplace health. General practitioners have an important role to play in helping to ensure that their patients are able to work, so we will test the impact of putting employment advisers in GP surgeries. The first of those will be in place within a month. We will work with GPs and primary care professionals to support individuals to remain in work or return to work, and we will reform statutory sick pay to simplify it and ensure that it helps people to stay in work.”

In the debate that followed the statement, Dr Stoate, who is a practicising GP, said;

“I am particularly pleased by his statement that he wants to introduce employment advisers into primary care services, which is extremely welcome and overdue. Will he ensure that those advisers will be involved with the patient from the moment they are off sick, so that we can reduce the amount of time that they are off sick, and they go back to work before they get anywhere near incapacity benefit?”

“May I tell my right hon. Friend as a GP that, by the time someone has been off work for six months, say, with a bad back, their chances of getting back to work are disappointingly low? Therefore, the real challenge is to prevent people needing incapacity benefit in the first place.”

The Minister responded by saying;

“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his comments. I am confident that employment advisers will be able to make a significant difference and provide more choice for people, rather than people being presented just with the unpalatable prospect of being signed off and going on to benefit. We should be able to do more for people in that situation. I hope that the other potential spin-off benefit of putting employment advisers into GP practices will relieve some of the pressure and work load on GPs themselves.”
 
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© 2008 Dr Howard Stoate - Member of Parliament for Dartford
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