Online medical certificates, made easy.

It is possible to request a medical certificate online in Australia. Telehealth doctors need to be fully registered with AHPRA .These days it is quite common for Australian GPs and specialists to assess their patients via video consultation, for all sorts of health issues. You should expect the doctor to ask you some questions about your medical history and your symptoms, just as they would in a regular clinic.

A medical certificate can relate to a previous day or days, subject to assessment, and provided the period of sick leave is very recent, e.g. within the past few days. However the date of the consultation always appears at the top of the certificate, with the relevant dates of sick leave stated in the certificate also.

A medical certificate issued via an appropriately conducted online assessment is a legal document, just the same as one you’d receive in a clinic. For more information on your rights as an employee go to www.fairwork.gov.au .

It is also important to note that an online doctor may occasionally advise you to see a doctor in person instead, for example, if they assess that you are more significantly unwell and a physical examination is needed.

A medical certificate issued by a telehealth doctor is a legal document and contains all the appropriate information you’d expect- including relevant dates, full professional details of the doctor, and their signature.

Our service is supported by employees and employers alike.

An employee must inform their employer if intending to take sick leave or carer’s leave. This has to be done as soon as possible, but can be after the leave has started. It should be specified how long the absence from work will be, or is expected to be.

An employer can ask an employee to give evidence that confirms they took leave because they were unable to work because of an illness or injury, or needed to care for an immediate family or household member who was experiencing illness, injury, or unexpected emergency.

Employers are entitled to ask employees for evidence for as little as 1 day or less off work.

An employee who does not provide their employer with evidence when asked may not be entitled to be paid for sick leave or carer’s leave.

An award or registered agreement can specify the circumstances in which an employee must give evidence to their employer and what type of evidence is required. The type of evidence requested must be reasonable in the circumstances.

Medical certificates and statutory declarations (stat decs) are considered acceptable forms of evidence. Although there are no strict rules on what type of evidence should be provided by an employee, the evidence has to convince a reasonable person that the employee was genuinely entitled to the leave.

As per Australian guidelines, the standard requirements for a medical certificate are:

• Name and address of the doctor issuing the certificate
• Name of the patient
• Date on which the examination took place
• Date on which the certificate was issued
• Date(s) on which the patient is or was unfit for attendance
• A diagnosis is not usually required. If it is a requirement for a diagnosis to be provided, the doctor should inform the patient and only proceed to include the diagnosis following the express consent of the patient.

It is often possible to get a medical certificate to cover recent days, provided certain conditions are met (and subject to the doctor’s assessment of course). A doctor can certify that a period of illness has occurred prior to the date of the actual consultation/examination, as long as this illness/sick leave took place recently- i.e within the last few days.

The date of the consultation will appear at the top of the medical certificate (this is a legal requirement for all medical documents). The certificate will also state that you were unwell and unable to attend work or scheduled activities on the dates in question, which may include days in the recent past.

Some other online providers do not offer backdated certificates, often because they do not actually conduct a video consultation with the patient to discuss the situation properly. At Qoctor, we have a video consultation with every patient, for safety, thoroughness and to allow us this flexibility in certifying for the dates the patient needs, in a responsible way.

Furthermore, employees are sometimes incorrectly advised about this issue by their employers or others, i.e they are led to believe that getting a medical certificate relating to previous dates is not allowed. However, Australian employment law clearly states that it is allowable for employees to obtain a medical certificate after the period of sick leave in question. According to www.fairwork.gov.au : “an employee has to let their employer know that they are going to take sick or carer’s leave. This has to be done as soon as possible, and can be after the leave has started. They should also specify how long they will be off or expect to be off work”.

An exception to this is when too much time has elapsed since the period of sick leave (for example, it was weeks or months in the past)- in this case a doctor may not be able to offer a backdated medical certificate.