Doctors have branded fit notes a success in helping people return to work but believe it has not improved advice to patients and that more local services are needed to support returning to work.
They also highlighted pressure to give sick notes for non-medical reasons and that it was not felt necessary for a full recovery before returning to work.
The research for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) investigating GPs attitudes to the new measure found that 70% agreed that the fit note had helped their patients make a phased return to work.
However, 80% of doctors feel their patients do not have access to local services to provide advice or support for a return to work.
Only one in five (20%) thought there were good services locally to which they could refer patients for advice about a return to work, with 19% saying support in returning to work services were available.
The results are mirrored by those regarding training issues around the fit note with the majority (89%) reporting they had not received training in health and work over the previous 12 months.
Only around 19% of GPs in Wales and Scotland had received this training compared to just 10% of their colleagues in England.
Doctors were split down the middle on questions about whether the fit note had helped improve the advice given to patients about their fitness for work (53%) and the frequency with which they recommend a return to work as an aid to patient recovery (48%).
Three quarters (77%) said they felt obliged to give sickness certificates for reasons that were not strictly medical, while 81% felt a patients did not need a full recovery from their condition before recommending a return to work.
Dr Mark Hann and Professor Bonnie Sibbald, authors of the General Practitioners' attitudes towards patients' health and work report, concluded that: "The results show the majority of GPs perceive the fit note to have had a positive impact on the quality of consultations, the advice they give on fitness for work and importantly, outcomes for patients.
"In terms of broader attitudes to health and work, the majority of GPs thought that work was beneficial for health, that worklessness was generally detrimental to health and that helping patients stay in or return to work was an important part of a GPs role," they added.
A longer report describing all the findings will be published in the summer.
