José Manuel Silva said it would be possible to create a system where sick leave declarations could be sent directly to a person’s employer without breaking medical secrecy but that this would only be applied in cases where there could be a risk to third parties.
The head of the Portuguese medical association acknowledged that the system could be “implemented without breaking medical secrecy” and could be used to advise employers that one of their workers was on sick leave without the need for the business to wait for a sick note to be sent in by workers.
The logistics of such a system were explained by José Manuel Silva: “Since the temporary sick leave declarations are issued by computer, they can be sent immediately to the employer through their tax number”.
The questioning of the sick note process has been brought into the public domain as answers are sought by authorities to try to avoid situations similar to that which occurred with the co-pilot of the Germanwings Airbus A320, which saw Andreas Lubitz purposely crash a passenger plane leading to the death of all 150 on board.
Searches of Andreas Lubitz’s home turned up “medical documents that suggested a pre-existing illness”, including current “torn-up sick notes, including which one that covered the day of the accident”.