Hospital procedures: do you take it as annual leave or a sick day?

[mhmm]

I have a hospital procedure soon and will need two days off work for it (I'm hoping it will fall on a Monday and then I'll only need one day off). It's marked as 'urgent'. Usually for GP appointments etc that are an hour or two we just work the time back, but obviously this is a longer duration of time.

Do you take it as annual leave or as a sick day? Ideally I want to avoid any further sick days as my attendance is quite poor due to health issues

It's sick. If its a long term condition most companies are understanding.

Depends entirely on your company’s leave policy - I have worked in places where they would give it as sick and places where you would either have to take it as holiday or unpaid

It would be sick leave where I work.

It would be treated as sick leave at my work but would contribute to the 'trigger points' of two episodes or eight days.

I've only taken it as sick. If pushed I'd take it as unpaid.

If it's going to trigger issues with the number of sick episodes and you know when it will be then I would book annual leave.

Surely it has to be sick leave. It’s fully explainable and must be rare for a company to fire someone if the trigger was an urgent hospital procedure. Am I naive?

HR here, it's sick leave .... however if want to use holiday you can ask to log it as such.
If your illness is classed as a disability under the equality act they need to be careful with your absence management.

We are allowed 3 paid hospital appointments a year (which do not impact the Bradford factor calculation) so I guess the day itself would use one of those and then any subsequent time off would be sick.

I work for the nhs. Its classed as sick (self certification for first 5 days if its planned sickness like a hospital procedure)

My place of work lets me have the time off paid.

Depending on what you are having done don't assume it will be only one day because you are booked as a day case. I had a procedure as a day case then had post op haemorrhage and needed a blood transfusion and to go back to theatre for re-exploration. Was in for nearly a week altogether. Luckily no problem with sick leave from work.

It would normally be classed as sick leave but if you have a really poor sick record I'd ask for annual leave.

Sick leave where I work

I’m having a colonoscopy next week and just plan on taking it as sick. If pushed I would request to take it as unpaid.

I already don’t have enough annual leave to cover school holidays etc so not using annual leave for unavoidable medical stuff

Sick. Wouldn’t trigger anything.

I have very regular hospital appointments and procedures. Appointments class as “absence”. The day of a procedure such as surgery is “absence” but the time off afterwards for recuperation is sick leave. All is fully paid. I don’t take annual leave. I’m covered by equality legislation and am legally disabled.

Personally I would take it as a sick day - there is a drop down list on our work calendar with reasons for absence ie. sick, holiday, pregnancy-related, and you just pick which one it is.

@Fragrancefreebabywipes please also allow a day for the prep as taking this at work even if close to a loo would be a nightmare. I WFH on the prep day (thankfully) and had a double camera inspection and fortunately opted for sedation so took annual leave on the day of the actual procedure.

There’s no obligation for an employer to give paid time off for hospital procedures or appointments if there’s no agreement to do so in your contract of employment - unless you have a disability or health condition. This can be either physical or mental - and is defined as a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to do normal day-to-day activities. In this case you have some protection under the equality act by way of ‘protected characteristics’. In these cases you are entitled to reasonable paid time off for hospital appointments and treatment. Your treatment or appointment would have to be in relation to your disability or health condition, and would be classed as disability leave, rather than sick leave. If you think you qualify talk to your employer as it may trigger a change so that any sick leave taken as a result of your disability or health condition can be regarded as disability leave instead. It’s part of the ‘reasonable adjustments’ that employers have to make for disabled people.

It’s sick leave for us, I’m sure.

There may be company policy on this. In my place of work it would be paid special leave for the appointment and recovery possibly sick leave but I think most managers would approve special leave for both days.

I'm very lucky. When I had an endoscope & colonoscopy (same day) I was given 3 days special leave. I also had a 5 hour appointment which involved a nuclear scan. I was advised to avoid pregnant women or those with a compromised immune system for 24 hours. As a precaution I was told not to go to work until the 24 hours had passed & was given 2 days special leave then too

@BettyBoo123456 thankfully I WFH so no issues about being near a loo on prep day ! I have had one before so know what to expect