The change stems from a decree-law approved last December, which changes the services responsible for issuing the certificate of temporary incapacity for work (CIT).

According to the decree, services considered competent to issue sick notes are “entities providing public, private and social health care, namely primary health care, drug addiction prevention and treatment services, and hospital health care, including emergency rooms".

Until now, patients had to go to their family doctor to have a certificate of temporary incapacity issued.

With the expansion of the services competent to pass sick leave, it is no longer necessary for a user who has suffered an urgent acute illness, and who has been seen in an emergency service, to have to go to primary health care just to request the respective CIT.

However, according to the SNS, to prevent non-urgent users from going to the emergency room just to obtain CIT or non-urgent care, the measure does not apply to people who have been classified, according to the Manchester Triage, with the blue or green bracelet.

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