The General Practitioners Association fears that GPs have to spend too much time writing unnecessary certificates for students after the government tightened the absence rules.
A few days after the new rules were introduced there are already reports of students coming to the doctor to get a written certification,writes the newspaper Aftenposten.
Director of the Association, Kari Sollien , believes the new system stipulates that pupils must go to the doctor with every small complaint if they are absent from school.
– Students must have a medical certificate for absences also due to colds, flu or stomach bugs for it to be counted as a valid absence.
These are conditions that are well known in the population and that get better naturally in due course, says manager Kari Sollien.
The new rules mean that students with ten percent undocumented absence in a subject basically do not get an approved diploma.
GP Tom Ole Øren at Nøtterøy have seen the consequences of the new regulations.
– Just two days after school start , pupils came to me to confirm that they have been seen by the doctor, he says. The pupils did this ” to be safe,” he says.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
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