Stressed hospital staff take 22,000 sick days, costing Hull And East Yorkshire trust £8.5m
STRESSED-OUT hospital staff called in sick thousands of times in just 12 months.
As the NHS comes under increasing pressure and cutbacks continue, anxiety and stress has been blamed for almost 22,000 days lost to sickness at the region's main hospitals.
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Pressure: Thousands of days were lost to staff sickness
Hull And East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham, said £8.5m was paid to staff off sick from October last year to September this year.
Ray Gray, regional officer for Unison, said he fears staff are being stretched to the limit.
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He said: "This is graphic evidence of the pressure the NHS is under because of the Government policies to save money and the trust's attempts to implement those policies.
"It shows the pressure the staff are under when they are trying to do their job on the wards.
"However the staff feel, they try to give the best service they possibly can.
"The NHS was always seen as a safe place to be and had a long-term future for people to work in to.
"That's now gone and that creates stress and anxiety. It's very sad when it reaches these levels and morale is at rock bottom."
Hospital officials said although the figure for the number of days lost to sickness appears high at almost 22,000, the total number of possible working days is more than two million.
Sick nursing and midwifery staff were paid £4.4m during the period and the group accounts for 52 per cent of the sickness cost in "staff groups".
Gastrointestinal problems, which relate to the stomach and intestines, were also high on the list for sickness reasons, with more than 1,800 cases among staff across the trust.
The trust is under pressure to make £99m in efficiency savings by 2018.
Staff wages cost more than £360m each year, while the overall annual trust budget is £480m.
According to figures revealed in the trust's board papers, the £8.5m does not include "variable" pay to cover staff sickness, which means extra pay for overtime, as well as agency and bank staff.
Officials said the estimated cost of sickness if variable pay was included would rise to about £11m.
Jayne Adamson, chief of workforce and organisational development at the trust, said staff absence is taken "very seriously" and the trust is committed to reducing the days lost to sickness.
She said: "When compared with other trusts in our region, our figures for staff attendance compare very favourably.
"Our figures for stress absence relate to stress outside of work, as well as inside work, and we take our responsibilities to our staff seriously in helping them to cope with stresses outside of the working environment.
"Each year, we conduct a stress survey, which enables us to act on expert health and safety executive advice on managing stress, and this informs our annual plan for reducing stress-related sickness."
Mrs Adamson said work has been done on staff engagement throughout this year.
She said: "We know some staff sickness is caused by disempowerment at work and, over the past six months, we have worked extremely hard to engage with our staff and ensure they are included in some of the big decisions taken around changes to our services.
"We are looking at tackling many of the everyday frustrations which can result in staff sickness and we hope over time these will have an effect on absence."
Mrs Adamson said the trust is also offering staff a free flu vaccination to help tackle sickness.
Last year, more than 70 per cent of staff took up the offer, which reduced the number of sick days lost to flu from 1,913 in 2010 to 414 this year.
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Comments
by bazza_12
Friday, November 23 2012, 8:56PM
“"So how much does the extra day holiday for flu vacs cost the NHS?"
how much does giving flu to loads more people cost everyone?”
by ruby1989
Friday, November 23 2012, 12:14AM
“So how much does the extra day holiday for flu vacs cost the NHS?”
by ruby1989
Thursday, November 22 2012, 11:55PM
“I work at NHS and rang up for free flu vacs yesterday as offering an extra days annual leave as incentive! Woman I spoke to said "are you able to get here in 10 mins?" I said yes and realised how easy it is to fall for double glazing such a smoooth voice!!”
by be_cky
Thursday, November 22 2012, 11:32PM
“PS - where did this 8.5m figure come from? You're not replaced when off sick, either colleagues cover you and become stressed themselves or the work is piled up for your return, hence more stress! give us a break”
by be_cky
Thursday, November 22 2012, 11:23PM
“Hull & EY NHS have 8000 + employees = less than 3 days each sick per year? Why is this interestng or unusual?”
by PatrickNewman
Thursday, November 22 2012, 10:59PM
“22,000 lost out of 2,000,000 working days. I make that 1.1% - not a problem. 2,000,000 days implies a full time equivalent work force of 8696 - does that make sense?”
by attemten10
Thursday, November 22 2012, 10:05PM
“"bevRoadNorth" take your blinkers off, the number of sick days is not the story here, I also work for the NHS and I too witness the reasons why staff go sick, never known "career sickies" although I do acknowledge that a few do take the Michael. The vast majority however are hard working, conscientious staff, who at the same time as caring for others are having to deal with job/pay insecurity, for the record, sickness does not play a part in the re-banding, redeployment or job security process?????”
by bazza_12
Thursday, November 22 2012, 7:04PM
“umm.. so 9% of the possible work days are lost to sickness... 9%.... NINE PERCENT.. is that all?? I fail to see the story here.. unless we're saying.. 91% of people are fit for work and do their job without being sick. Considering the stresses and strains, the daily grind, the levels of demand physical and mental put on workers in the NHS.. I'm surprised that workers aren't sick a lot more than 9% of work days. Respect to all who work in the NHS. (Even those two that BevRoadNorth grassed up)”
by bazza_12
Thursday, November 22 2012, 6:56PM
“BevRoadNorth... Did you grass up the two in your department?”
by BevRoadNorth
Thursday, November 22 2012, 6:43PM
“Oh, come on...I worked 14 years in the NHS and colleagues in bases ranging from Hull Royal,to Westwood,to especially pen-pusher-ville in Willerby HQ called in sick more times than is believable, to the point of taking the p**s, and I categorically know of two in my last dept alone who were career sickies.
No disrespect to the genuinely ill, but theres a culture of untouchable sickies in the NHS,and public sector in general,shielded by Unison and its ilk,and by 'caring','investor in people' orientated policies.
22,000 sick days? The only 'staff engagement' many need is a final written warning,and short of a bursting appendix,to get into work.”