To be absolutely fed up with NHS staff off sick

[njg616]

I manage a small team and have had several staff take the complete biscuit with sickness.

One took a year off before retirement - we couldn't recruit until she handed in her notice.

One got a similar job while off sick for 6 months, she then went off sick in her new job

Another got the job 'to cover her bills while she recovered from bunion surgery'

Currently I have someone off sick with a history of long and short term sickness. Has been off sick for half the time she's been in her post- 6 months. I follow policy, and refer her to HR who keep giving her more chances.

I find many staff use their NHS salaries while off sick as their sponsorship to do other things in their lives. This cannot be a good use of public funds especially with how things are at the minute.

These staff would not last a minute in the private sector. Sickness records don't seem to matter which to me is a huge indication of a person's commitment and reliability

It's not just the NHS. As a former area director for a UK bank it was always noticeable that those staff on older contracts that had very generous sick pay entitlements were the ones that took advantage of the six months full pay and then on return to work wanted to take the holidays that they accrued whilst off sick.

@OneMoreTime23 Not sure what I would have to gain by lying about this.

Same. Just had hysterectomy; now cancer diagnosis. Been off since mid November and feeling like I should be back in work before fit note runs out.

Agree! Another here, diagnosed with secondary BC and recovering from hysterectomy. 50% pay = additional stress.

I've never seen a GP refuse to sign somebody off. If they say they're not up to doing their job GPs don't argue with them

Nor the trust where I work. I can only remember one member of nursing staff that was dismissed and that was because she was dangerously incompetent. Nobody questioned the selection criteria or who signed that appointment off.

How did that work for her? A new employee would start on only a month’s sickness allowance. I thought bunion surgery recovery was much longer than a month.

You must be joking? My DH is an NHS worker and he almost died from pneumonia.. he got a disciplinary because he tried to go back to work before he was properly well but collapsed and had to go home... as he had gone in the two absences (of a week each) were counted as two sicknesses in the year. So he got called in for a disciplinary.
I also work for the NHS and had been off sick for one shift in the entire year and that was so traumatic and I felt so guilty about it... I was 37 weeks pregnant and had the flu, I work 12 hour night shifts.
I do not recognise what you are saying. No one I or my husband works with is like that.

I do agree with pp talking about staffing levels though. NHS struggles with staffing levels throughout most services.
The one night I was off sick in the last year the part of the service I'm responsibe for just shut for the night. Because there's no cover whatsoever and I'm a lone worker. So what is supposed to be a 24hr service available to people just had to shut over night. It's so sad and you can't imagine the guilt I felt.
But I can see what people are saying about this leading to burn out... people going on long term sick when they eventually can't handle things any more or just not lasting in the job very long

The lack of replacing staff is a hr problem.
There rest is known as burnt out, nhs staff are not machines yet are expected to act like one.
They are underpaid and understaffed and taking on impossible amount of work responsibilities due to lack of staffing, for really long hours per shift ,again hr and management problem. Its simply not possible for them to jeep going, if it's anywhere near as bad as our health service in Ireland.These staff need more support snd problem solved, its not rocket science, it happens all over the world with poor health service,the HSE is worse, dismal at its best here in ireland🙄

I thought you needed to work for some years before you got such generous sick leave?

@PerfectYear321 I have and it was me! I was the medical registrar in a large London teaching hospital and I asked my GP to write and say I shouldn’t have to carry the crash bleep after 37 weeks pregnant (because I couldn’t really run) I got a huge lecture about how she had worked when she was pregnant and she didn’t see why she should (and she didn’t)
TBC I hadn’t asked for or had any other days sick at any point.

Ex-NHS senior HR here and genuinely interested in how you think the national shortage of medics and clinicians, due to chronic underinvestment in training by the government over years, the number choosing to leave the UK due to Brexit, the number going into private hospitals because of the pay and conditions set nationally by the government are HR’s problem to fix.

There are now massive recruitment drives in India and Africa and the Philippines to try and plug the gaps, but the fundamental issues, which aren’t in HR’s power to fix, clearly aren’t a concern for a government hell bent on destroying the NHS and selling it off for parts.

😡

You do. It’s one month in your first year, two in your second, and so on.

I do not believe the story about the person with bunion surgery.

Well that helps clear up why NHS HR is so useless.

What is the recovery time for bunion surgery in your experience?

The NHS has a problem with malingerers, and it’s not come up with a solution.

Vicious circle - the good staff are overworked cos the pisstakers leave the team short handed.

Don’t know anyone who can think of a way to sort it, bar hiring sign-off medics who aren’t GPs, but it needs doing.

Royal Mail medics had special questionnaires to weed out their losers who claimed conditions that can easily be faked. Social media also catches loads who can then be fired, but that costs time and money.

Malingerers are the pits cos they screw their colleagues worst of all.

It depends on the work of course, but 6-8 weeks off sick is what appears on the leaflet in my Trust. A colleague of mine WFH from 2 weeks and was back in the office after 6.

DH and I are Foster Carer's and if you're ill you carry on because that's what you do to look after the DC. My DH had a brain tumour and was in intensive care after surgery but we carried on. My FC's SW has taken 5 1/2 months off in 2023 and took 6 months off in 2022 and about 3 1/2 months off the previous year 2021. She always comes back before her salary reduces to half pay. She only works part time in the first place. We are obviously not told why she is ill but my FS doesn't trust her and really dislikes her. He says she's unreliable. I do wonder if she didn't get full pay each time she is off sick for up to 6 months, if she would still go off sick quite so much, especially as much of her work she can do WFH? Then when she does come back she does a week or 2 then takes off her accrued holiday.

@SnakesAndArrows

Its 6 weeks no weight bearing at all, 6 weeks crutches rehabilitation so 3 months per foot with internal fixation.

I've worked with people whom I called the work police because they decided if someone was off it was their mission to try and find out why and then decide if they were genuine or not, in most cases they found not(made for better gossip). Of course ill people should be made to work and suffer. The majority of people are truthful, the sweeping generalisation is up there with all people on benefits are at it.

There is always the odd person who takes the piss but they are quite rare. If people are dropping like flies, it is usually because there is something wrong with the workplace. If you think they are not genuinely sick, it suggests they feel undervalued and have no loyalty to the workplace or their colleagues. Why do you think this is?

Average off sick rate across the NHS is 5.6% vs approx 3% in the private sector.

Double but does your private sector worker come across nothing but sick and in many cases infectious patients? not too mention ones who physically assault staff? or have work policies in place that demand staff with infectious illnesses should stay at home?

My DD was in her first year in NHS during covid, she caught CV 3 times (forced to stay home min 5 days) then caught flu having been asked to care for a patient with both CV and Flu, she was given no ffp3 mask, just the blue slip on one.

When she returned to work, she was put on a stage 1 disciplinary to monitor her sick record.

a few months later, resigned because of this and now works in Australia for double the pay, far less stress and given correct PPE at all times, loving her work.

Funny how we ve gone from Clapping for NHS workers to "lazy bastards who take too much time off sick"

The difference in private sector is that redundancies regularly weed out the ones who take the piss with sick leave - all the ones who went off with stress one year got the chop

The hero's and angels rhetoric faded away when money, pay is brought to the fore.