MORE than 60,000 sick notes were handed out to Barnsley residents over the last 12 months, new figures have revealed.

A fit note, more commonly known as a sick note, excuses someone from work due to illness.

It can be issued after seven days of sickness absence if a doctor decides a patient’s health impacts their ability to work.

The doctor can decide if the patient is ‘unfit for work’ or ‘may be fit for work subject to the following advice’, accompanied by recommendations to help them in the workplace.

The latest figures from NHS England show a total of 62,436 sick notes were handed out by GPs over the latest 12-month period – the equivalent of 5,203 every month.

These figures include every individual note written by a GP, rather than the number of patients receiving a note.

The notes were given out as part of 23,235 fit note ‘episodes’ – a period of sickness with one or more sick notes. Of these, 3,145 were for cases where a patient was given five or more notes in succession.

Mental and behavioural conditions were the most common reason among those that provided medical details – with more than one million issued nationally in the year to June.

In Barnsley, at least 5,229 notes were given for this reason over the same period.

Separate data from the Office for National Statistics shows some 2.8 million working age adults across the UK were out of work due to ill health between May and July of this year, 700,000 more than at the end of 2019.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “We have seen record numbers of people excluded from the workforce due to long-term sickness and economic inactivity.

“The NHS and social care are a key part of economic growth – by cutting waiting lists and taking bold action on public health, we can get Britain back to health and back to work.”