Thanks to all who replied, nobody has so far disagreed with me I note.
It would seem that SRATCOH needs looking at again, and as has been stated above, perhaps we need to do the sleep / fatigue diary thing again. (Are you listening ATSSD?)
Nobody should "feel a fraud" when reporting unfit for duty due to fatigue. It's a professional and legal requirement to do so. How would you feel if you were involved in an incident in which you knew your fatigue played a part. How much support would you get from management? It isn't really serving the airlines best interests either, as our first priority has to be the provision of a SAFE service. Orderly is next, expeditious LAST.
Well thats the logical arguement anyway and I've convieniently ignored all the HF which actually go into the decision to report in sick. Factors that NATS management has relied upon in the past to keep the sickness rate down.
A phrase comes to mind "Crisis, what crisis?"
Rgds BEX