Shock at NHS staff sickness
Wednesday 19th August 2009, 12:45PM BST.
More than 45,000 NHS workers call in sick each day – one and a half times the absence rate seen in the private sector, a major study revealed today.
The quality of patient care is also being affected by obesity, smoking and poor mental health among staff, according to the report.
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust said “considerable work” had been done on the management of absence levels.
A performance report to the last board meeting showed that in April the rate was four per cent compared to last year’s average of 4.4 per cent in the county’s two major hospitals, which employ about 5,000 people.
During the month 3,688 working days were lost at the Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal Hospitals compared to 5,201 for the same period last year.
Spokesman Andy Rogers said: “We have comprehensive measures in place to manage sickness absence and try to support our staff to prevent absence in the first place.
“It is a priority for the trust to support staff and help to prevent sickness absence, for example, by providing effective training in moving and handling.
“This helps to reduce the number of back injuries, which is a big cause of absence in the NHS.”
Researchers found that hospitals with poor staff health are less productive and have higher rates of superbug infection, unnecessary use of agency workers and higher patient death rates.
Improving the health and well-being of 1.4 million NHS staff could potentially save more than half a billion pounds every year, it is claimed.
According to the study, annual NHS sickness levels are 10.7 days a year per employee, higher than the public sector average of 9.7 days and 50 per higher than the private sector average of 6.4 days.
The NHS loses 10.3 million working days annually due to sickness absence, costing £1.7 billion per year.
“A reduction of a third would mean an extra 3.4 million working days a year and annual direct cost savings of over half a billion pounds (£555 million),” the said the NHS Health and Wellbeing Review is published by occupational health expert Dr Steve Boorman.
By Health Correspondent Dave Morris
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SO we have a NHS where the staff are off sick every five minutes, and they are fat chain smoking with mental health issues . Well i will tell you one thing, even if i broke my legs if i see one of them comeing to my aid i will start crawling with out fail.
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The sickest joke is the price of the NHS?
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This is not all the people who work for the NHS. I work for the NHS in an office along with 5 others, none of us have had a single day off sick in the last two years, none of us chain smoke and none of us are fat!
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The NHS is a huge organisation – the sickness figures taken overall are bound to be high.
There might well be a proportion of skivers as there is in any workplace. But there are bound to be a lot more hard workers trying to do their best too. It’s the managers who all too often are at fault – I wonder how many pressures are passed down the line due to the all-important need to meet targets?
And who is it who ultimately sets these targets? Why, it’s the government of the day. Lots of meaningless targets which do NOTHING for patient care and which have led to huge and wasteful administrative structures within the NHS where patient care isn’t an issue – although they IMPACT on those directly involved in trying to improve patient care. That’s what leads to sickness.
And don’t think that much will change under any other government either…
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I am sorry but if people get so stressed out in the job they do perhaps instead of going off sick and getting paid they should look for alternative work.This type of thing is why everything is or going abroad.Perhaps if people are to fat to do there job they should be seen as unfit to do the job and sacked.And as for annie an office of 5 people probably doing the job of 3 not having a day off sick for 2 years yipee who is a clever bunny then .
Perhaps if they were not paid for the odd day off and a new contract was given saying you get nothing for the first 2 weeks off sick you would see the sick rate drop.And as for jeepers blame the guv or management yep thats it blame the ones in charge targets always have to be reached the goals always have to be moved thats life if they were not we would all be living in mud huts. It is not just the NHS it is education , local guv and the rest of the public sector …over staffed a little idle and it seems a habit of whingeing and a need to be forced to carry out what they are paid to do….TIME TO GET TOUGH WITH THIS LOT….
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In an organisation the size of the NHS you can take time off sick with no guilt. If you don’t turn up to work you know there are enough people to cover you. In most private sector places of employment it is very difficult to arrange any kind of time off, even for holidays. Taking time off sick for someone like myself is nearly impossible… hence the reason I’m in my early 30s and NEVER had a day off sick!
Of course, working for the NHS is extremely stressful… much more so than private sector employment. I’m sure the recession is of massive concern to all public sector workers as the government often make massive redundancy’s or don’t have enough money to pay the wages…… Oh, sorry my mistake. Public sector workers still have job security, guaranteed pay rises, good pensions etc.
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not suprised they are sick all that illness and death leads to anxiety and depression plus with the obestiy of many patients manual handling is a big problem
the nhs needs to have better H&S and fitness and councilling for staff thats what keeps people in work, being well, being active, being happy
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Andrew – think of your health and take a deep breath eh? I was exhausted just reading that last breathless rant.
And while you’re thinking of your health, might be worth getting someone to look at that giant chip on your shoulder….!
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As usual all blame, blame, blame.
Since when did blaming the government, the NHS, Rosemary Connolly, etc, ect ever address the problem?
Why not look at why so many NHS workers are finding themselves unfit to work and try to help find a way to get past it?
Typically you bloomin’ men are all so busy throwing abuse at the problem instead of trying to make constructive suggestions to eradicate the issue!
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Jeepers i have no chip on my shoulder . People like you clearly choose to ignore the facts which is why the uk is in the pickle it is.Speaking as some one who is selfemployed and happy i just find free loaders and the like a bore.
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Blimey a lot of people who’ve got chips on their shoulders here – hope you never need the NHS then. Yes working for the NHS is stressful – you only have to look at the violence that occurs in A&E regularly so you can take that off the sickness rate for starters. Then there are rules which state that if you are unwell you need to remain off so that you don’t infect patients for example. This often leads to longer periods off sick as generally those in the private sector don’t think of their colleagues or customers and generally come back to work before they should. Then take off the added pressures of coming into contact with people like some of the correspondents who believe that because they are taxpayers they own people who work in the NHS and treat them as such. SO that adds to the sickness.
Of course a lot can be done to improve the NHS working conditions but as soon as that happens you have the same people bleating on about money not going to patient care and so managers get cold feet and staff treatment goes downhill and is not considered.
Oh and to dispel a few myths – every 3 years or so the NHS undergoes political interference which involves reorganisations and redundancies. It is probably one of the least secure organisations to wok in – generally only medics are exempt. Having worked in the NHS for 15 years I have seen more than my fair share of this and seen a lot of good people made redundant – which probably explains why it never gets better.
Oh and as for pensions, the average NHS pension paid out is £7000 per annum -hardly a lot. Oh and if you do a quick search on the Health Service Journal website you will find that the NHS pension is currently paying a third of its income back to to the treasury. Still we wouldn’t want the facts to get in the way of your rants now would we??
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The people who agree with the findings have chips on the shoulder mmmmm .
The majority treat NHS staff properly. They have no more abuse than any other worker who deals with the public and of course any verbal or physical abuse is wrong.
Let’s face it work conditions are always as an excuse for staff failings, the UK working conditions are amongst the best in the world, however some would have it that the employee dictates to the employer.
Perhaps every 3 years staff in all walks of life should have contracts renewed which would allow the employer to decide if the person is still fit to do the job he or she was employed and paid to do,they can access the staff members performance and attendance .
I believe this is why many employers are starting to give out short term contracts that is the way forward it protects the employer and the employee.
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Sorry Andrew didn’t get time to respond until now (lunchtime)! Not on the internet all day like you seem to be! I didn’t ask for a medal for not being sick I merely stated that you shouldn’t tar everyone with the same brush! For your information, although I don’t know why I feel the need to justify to you, we are not overstaffed but spend our days dealing with with a very difficult group of patients! This does not cause us to go off sick but is the job we are paid to do. I will allow you to have the last word as I have no more to add!
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Annie it is not for the employee to judge whether they are over staffed. sickness rate 50% worse for public sector workers than private sector, i think we can tar half with the same brush. And i should hope you are not abuseing nhs equipment for private issues.
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Andrew, you clearly have no idea about the enviroment NHS staff operate in ! Fancy coming and doing my job for a day ? i think your attitude would soon change. Unfortunately there are to many people in this country that think, like yourself, that they could do a better job.
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i think NHS staff do a great job, those nurse are ANGELS, andrew finch is out of touch and hospitals will always have higher absence rates for health and safety!! andrew you must no nothing about HR, safety or management clearly
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