Why is the NHS so generous with their employee leave

[Ionlywentandbloodydidit]

Maybe I’m just jealous plain and simple.
I work really hard in a patient facing private sector clinical role ( not transferable to NHS) , long hours, huge amounts of stress and responsibility just like NHS workers . Four weeks holiday , no sick pay , no time off for GP, dentist appointments etc . Not just me , this is completely normal in my industry.
The NHS is on its knees , I see it every day , I’m privately employed but am also registered with NHS as a performer ( it’s complicated ) .
I have several friends who work within the NHS as nurses, midwife’s etc . They are all mostly on eight weeks holiday per annum , regularly on leave for months at a time on full pay for various reasons such as two months for a miscarriage, six months for the death of a very elderly parent or a bad back or stress etc.
They will all receive a good pension .
I’m so intrigued ( and envious I admit ) at how the NHS can be so generous with tax payers money.
Im ashamed to say I’m beginning to resent my NHS friends some of whom are quite brazen with it, especially when I also see first hand how long waiting lists are for consultations / ops for my own patients / family etc .

My understanding is the Nhs staff are paid less ie no pay rises for 8 years ! Pension scheme which penalises working extra hours & whole host of other non benefits
But hey if you feel you are missing out jump ship - they are crying out for staff !

Not everyone in the nhs is exposed to disease every day.

It's not I'm on 27 days annual leave and salary is just over minimum wage, I'm only here still as my job gives me the flexibility to manage my autistic teen/school/appointments. The sick leave is generally on the same level as civil service jobs.

I dint know who is working our your leave, but they're not doing it right. If a BH falls on your day off, that BH shouldn't be taken from your BH entitlement. The hours should be left in your leave allowance to be taken at another time.

The pay is shit so they make up for it with other benefits.

Also do you know all this leave is paid

I know someone who worked for the NHS and was off for a year with stress (paid), her stress was mainly that she didn't want to work and wanted to be home with her 3 kids. They then did a voluntary redundancy scheme and they paid her a good chunk to leave.

It starts as normal 27 days per year annual leave in NHS just like a lot of places. It builds up to a maximum of 33 days after I think 15 years service. I don't call that excessive. NHS employees are supposed to get a decent pension but they pay a LOT directly from their salary as well for that. The employee contributions are large and it's not optional. They are entitled to the usual sick pay rules that cover any other government employees. I don't think this is excessive. It's really what everyone should be on. It's usual sick pay for 6 months and then SSP after that like all local authorities etc. it's not the NHS fault that u didn't agree a decent package for yourself you are being totally unreasonable. They are not slaves and you don't own them just because you are a tax payer.

This ^^

The maximum NHS leave is 33 days plus BH and that is after 10 years continuous service. Not that excessive if you ask me.

Two months sick leave for a miscarriage (assuming no medical complications) and six months sick leave for a bereavement (assuming it’s not your child) is just crazy. Private sector would collapse if people did this.

I work in the NHS and don’t recognise that description. It’s all unpaid overtime, working whilst sick, picking up emails during AL and weekends in my sector.

If it wasn’t for the decent T&C many of us would have left/retired already and recruitment and retention problems would be even worse than they are.

Yes. You’re jealous. Or a shit stirrer. Or both 🤷‍♀️

I'm currently blowing through my remaining annual leave trying to NOT need to go off sick with massive ASD burnout by the way.

A) Your facts are wrong;
B) Leave (anywhere) is less about employer kindness than about staff retention: most NHS staff work themselves into the ground and so leave is essential to avoid too much burn out/ staff leaving the sector;
C) As is always the case with these sorts of threads when people in the corporate world complain about those who aren’t (NHS/ teachers, etc.). Working in the corporate world has certain benefits - namely pay - teachers, nurses, firefighters, and such get paid somewhere between just about satisfactory and appallingly. Their benefits are in other things, such as leave. I used to work in the corporate world. Pay fab, leave - especially for health or compassionate stuff - was dreadful. I now work for a charity. Pay not so good, but my gosh they are great when it comes to illness, family bereavements and childcare problems.

Good job that is just bullshit then. Something made up to anger people

Yep I had to take holiday for the day my grandad died, and another for the funeral.

When I was on sick leave for an extended period I had weekly calls to my line manager.

That’s not correct. I worked in HR in the NHS and you are misunderstanding it.

Nurses with shift patterns get an annual leave allowance that is inclusive of bank holidays. It does not matter whether or not they happen to be on shift on a bank holiday as they’re already built into their annual leave allowance.

NHS employees are all taxpayers.

If you were given back the proportion of your taxes that go to the NHS, do you think that you could buy comprehensive health insurance?

Unless you’re a high earner with youth and good health on your side I very much doubt you could.

My friend is a ward sister in the NHS and she gets 33 days annual leave but is very restricted to when she can take them.
She does get frustrated with some of the piss taking with sickness though. But I do think you get that everywhere.
I am private sector I get 35 days annual leave but have no restrictions to when I take them.
We also have some who take them piss with sickness because we have a generous scheme and they can.

So you object to a compassionate employer and think everyone should be as badly treated as you are? I suggest you join a union.
But the problem with the NHS is burnout. Wards are massively understaffed in many areas, technocratic management sets targets which have no relation to clinical practice on the front line and everyone is stressed but must show compassion at all times. At any moment an emergency may occur and - as seen with current flu epidemic - the system is at capacity (a well-run system would have only 85% bed occupancy at any time to take account of emergencies, epidemics, massive accidents etc) because having empty beds was considered by various governments (with no understanding of how hospitals work) as a waste of money. So any small disaster sets the whole system off-kilter.
For profit health care doesn't have to worry about emergencies or epidemics, only about selling treatments. Change your job, perhaps?

But 33 plus 8 stat is 41 working days ie 8 weeks (41 divide by 5) and 1 day no?

The NHS does not do this. My ex-brother-in-law did not get leave when his mother died etc.

It’s a good thing they don’t then, isn’t it?

A big problem with the NHS is that all the staff know it is very rare for anyone to get fired. There is an appeals process and the staff who know the system can drag it out endlessly. As a result, a lot of staff take the piss because they know they won’t get fired. This makes the manager’s job really hard, because they have no leverage. This really should be addressed. In the private sector if you take the piss you get fired, as a result most people behave themselves.

When I worked as an RN for the NHS (I retired on medical grounds in 2001) we got 30 AL and 10 days Bank holidays, as these were not given as standard to staff but we're still paid as time and a half if you did work them!
The 'benefit' packages nurses are given are to counteract the fact that wages are quite low, work so stressful and hours are long. At the time if you were unlucky enough to pull a 14hr shift you only got as standard 90 minutes of breaks over the day!
I think getting 40days of holidays wasn't so bad for missing out on long weekends, christmas' and new years.