Letter: Elitists in government need to improve the quality of life for ordinary people to end sick note culture

Putting pressure on people for example will not get them back to work, and the right climate needs to be created if the statistics of millions of workers laid off due to illness are to come down substantially.

It is an insult to the medical profession when doctors lose the responsibility of assessing the ability to work. They are the professionals, not employers and politicians.

Giving the responsibility to 'specialist work and health specialists', impressive job titles, but these people will be institutionalised jobsworths, with their inability to make the objective judgements of GPs, who can distinguish between the sick and the malingerers better.

Some companies have already tried this new strategy, with staff being coerced back to work while still unwell - hardly conducive to productivity. The cynic in me makes me feel it is a callous attempt to save money on the NHS.

When the PM declares everyday "life worries" are not a medical reason for being unable to work, it is a quack diagnosis, symbolic of meddling politicians. It is these sorts of concerns which keep psychiatrists busy with millions of patients. Depression is an extension of sickness.

The Labour Party has said the government has run out of ideas - excuse me while I scoff.

There is a legacy to this ongoing state of affairs and it is the covid lockdowns with stringent measures endorsed by all main political parties, and workers are suffering the consequences indefinitely, with Parliament's leaders failing to fight the impending Pandemic Treaty especially, a future health risk.

When the elitists in the UK government, subservient to globalism, improve the quality of life for ordinary people, the resultant elevation of morale with all its manifestations will get the ill back to work.

Alas, after the General Election it will probably be business as usual whoever wins, and the cracks in health will be treated with sticking plasters.

David Fleming, Norfolk