Friday, August 29, 2014

South Tees sickness absence levels on the rise costing health trust nearly £10m


Rising sickness absence rates among staff cost a Teesside health trust nearly £10m.


Between July 2013 and June 2014, South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust recorded a 4.2% rate, against a target of 3.9%. The rates rose from a low of 3.89% in August 2013 to a high of 4.63% in February 2014.


A report to the trust’s board of directors reveals that 9,938 episodes of sickness absence were recorded, resulting in 116,926 full-time equivalent days lost to sickness - costing the organisation £9.68m. That figure includes employers’ costs but not the expenditure associated with replacement costs, such as locum cover and overtime.


The highest rates come in two of the largest job categories - nursing and midwifery, and healthcare assistants and support workers.


Nearly a quarter of absences were due to “gastrointestinal complaints” but by far the highest number of full time equivalent days lost, 22,880, were down to stress and anxiety.


The South Tees figure is lower than the regional 4.43% absence rate, ranking it fourth out of ten trusts.


In a report, Andrew Thacker, the trust’s assistant director of human resources, concludes: “It is recognised that sickness absence rates in the organisation are increasing. Contributing factors can include workload and work pressures, and periods of uncertainty associated with organisational change; both of which are acknowledged as being evident in our organisation at this time.


“Staff engagement remains a key intervention through times of change to help minimise the impact on individuals.”


To promote a healthy lifestyle among its workforce, the report says, measures have included providing a back care service and sports injury clinic, a confidential counselling service, several “self-help and health promotion strategies” and access to complimentary therapies through the Trinity Holistic Centre.


A health needs assessment of staff was done in January, with Teesside University due to produce a report in the autumn.


The trust’s director of HR, Chris Harrison, said: “To continue to deliver high quality care, we need staff that are healthy, well and are able to work. We’ve already done a lot of work around managing sickness absence across the organisation, including reviewing our policies and the information we make available for managers, but it’s equally as important to look at how we can improve the health and well-being of our staff through initiatives such as ‘health promoting hospitals’ which we’re actively involved in.


“Sickness absence not only has far-reaching costs to the organisation, but ultimately our patients, and while our current rate is lower than the regional average, we know we need to do further work to bring this level down and are already looking at good practice in other organisations to help us achieve this.”



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