Anybody who thought the Jellyfish will be any different, has their answer very quickly. A heavy handed and ill-considered policy announced late on a Friday evening. We have all seen that movie before and we all know how it ends.
So long as you are in an English-speaking country, it's not difficult to get a Doctor's certificate. So apart from adding to the company's medical bills, this should have no impact for pilots that have their stuff together.
Had an interesting experience a few weeks back. Took a tumble whilst out running when on leave in the UK. Strained my quad. Not too bad, thought it would be 4-7 days and back running again. Was supposed to head back to work, but couldn't put any weight on the damaged quad, so thought it best to go sick. Saw my friendly doc in Manchester, who referred me to an equally friendly physio. Sent in the documents to the company and enquired if the "injury" meant my licence was suspended and would I need an MCQ. "Yes" was the answer. I had a duty on a Saturday and aimed to fly that duty. Doctor's don't work weekends, so first available appointment is Monday afternoon. Another 3 days off work, but managed to get some good rehab on the quad hiking up The Peak. I see the Company Doc who wants some details from the Doctor in Manchester. The next 7 days sees a big pointless and expensive paper chasing exercise.
The net result, if I could have self-certified I would have been off work 4 days. Following the Company's procedure cost about $3k in medical and 2 weeks off work. Did I care?-no. Did Corporate Medical care?-No. In fact both myself and Corporate Medical agreed the policy is stupid and neither party was particularly motivated to make it work.
Time to win?