NHS managers or others please comment re sickness abscences

anamenottaken

The_Unready wrote: »

Sickness rates overall are higher in the public sector than in the private sector.

Sickness rates may also be calculated differently.

I found that in one public sector organisation where I worked they published high sickness rates.

I then found that someone working part-time - say they normally worked Thursday, Friday and Monday - and was away for two of those days (Friday and Monday) but returned on the third scheduled working day would have their sickness absense recorded as being Friday to Wednesday (six days) when they had been scheduled to work for only two of those.

MrsManda

anamenottaken wrote: »

I then found that someone working part-time - say they normally worked Thursday, Friday and Monday - and was away for two of those days (Friday and Monday) but returned on the third scheduled working day would have their sickness absense recorded as being Friday to Wednesday (six days) when they had been scheduled to work for only two of those.

I think most places (or at least everywhere I've worked) do this. It's partly to stop people taking time off 'sick' in order to enjoy a long weeked. Also SSP is payable after 4 days sickness and this includes weekends, bank holidays and days not normally worked.

anamenottaken

MrsManda wrote: »

I think most places (or at least everywhere I've worked) do this. It's partly to stop people taking time off 'sick' in order to enjoy a long weeked. Also SSP is payable after 4 days sickness and this includes weekends, bank holidays and days not normally worked.

But the sicknesd absence was being quoted as being "time lost due to sickness". In my example that was three times the actual time lost to the organisation.

They weren't being paid sick pay for the time they weren't actually due to be in work - they just received their normal pay (which included any statutory sick pay due but wasn't calculated because their normal pay was higher than what SSP would have been).

My original post was about calculating sickness rates in different organisations, not about management of sickness absence - where the "long weekend" is particularly relevant.

I had not seen sickness absence (meaning loss to the organisation) calculated in this way elsewhere (ie no real loss because someone wasn't due to work counted as "lost work" because they were, as expected, not at work and had been sick the previous scheduled working day).

Gingernutty

My NHS hospital trust uses a number of different scoring systems to make sure they crack down on sick leave.....

If an employee takes more than 11 days off in any rolling 12 month year

If an employee has a Bradford Score of 99 or more

(No. of periods off sick) x (No. of periods off sick) x (No. days total off sick) = (Bradford Score)

If an employee's sick leave average breaches 4.5%

I have asthma and I have to troll the wards and corridors looking for files.

So far, I have caught a diarrhoea bug (my hospital were in the news when they shut the place to visitors), a severe cold with an extremely high temperature and rash and a severe cough and cold.

Freaked parents have brought their children with 'meningitis', 'epilepsy' and 'whooping cough'.

These are bugs which have hospitalised otherwise healthy children and which could floor someone with a chronic respiratory illness (like, I don't know, like, say asthma).

As a consequence, I have had 4 periods of illness totalling 16 days in the 12 month period 01/02/2010 - 01/02/2011.

So according to the Bradford Scoring system that's

4 x 4 x 16 = 256

but it only comes to 4.3% so I haven't breached the 4.5% target.

However, I breached 2 of the 3 targets used to measure sick leave so that meant a disciplinary meeting with my line manager in which I had to agree not to be sick for the next 6 months :think:.

I really hope my crystal ball was working that day.

The Bradford scoring system is deeply resented by office staff as it takes weekends into account for shift workers.

So. If you come down with Norovirus on Thursday, you have to have Thursday and Friday off.

Now, say it only finishes on Saturday evening.

According to the hospital's own rules you can only return to work 48 hours after the last vomiting/diarrhoea episode.

Sunday is 24 hours, Monday is 48 hours so the earliest you can get back to work is Tuesday morning.

It finished Saturday night, remember?

Anyway........

The hospital will count that period of sickness as 5 days off (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday) even if you only work a normal 9-5 week and don't work weekends.

In reality, I haven't had 16 days off at all but the Bradford Scoring system says otherwise.

So, in answer to the OP's question. Yes.

The Health Authority or NHS Trust you work for can bring in rolling years AND Bradford Scores AND percentage averages AND discipline/penalise you for it even if you have a disability or underlying chronic illness which can be exacerbated by whatever you come down with, even if you warned them in your job application that you have a chronic illness/disability OR told your HR and Occupational Health people as soon as such a condition was diagnosed.

Welcome to our world, lollol, it's cold and harsh out here.

birkee

If you are so vulnerable to picking up infections, why are you working in a hospital?
You get sick, and the NHS get short staffed.
Makes no sense at all.
You seem to be suggesting that worried parents shouldn't bring sick children to hospital too, in case YOU catch something!
Seems the system would be better off if you DID lose your job.

Gingernutty

I'm a kind of clerk.

I was told at interview it was going to be solely an office job. There wouldn't be any direct patient contact (there still isn't) and I wouldn't be leaving the office. My susceptibility to infections wasn't going to be an issue, apparently..........

The job changed after I was hired.

There are a number of members of staff with varying degrees of disability, chronic ailments and the like, some hired with the conditions, some have been diagnosed after they've started work, some like nurses and their bad backs have, through no fault of their own, acquired the conditions because of the work they do.

The NHS, like any other employer has to pick the best people for the job at the time of hiring and can't just hire 100% healthy people. That's impossible and discriminatory.