Published: 20/10/2005 Volume 115 No. 5978 Page 30
Staff sickness is an ongoing problem in the NHS. But what is the true cost of absence, and what can be done about it?
Victoria Downing-Burn has the answers Improvements in the way that people are managed - including staff involvement, partnership working and good employee relations - aim to reduce absence rates and improve levels of commitment and trust. Indeed the Department of Health document A Workforce Response to Local Delivery Plans: a challenge for NHS boards highlights this link within the high-impact changes for human resources.
A recent NHS Partners benchmarking report on sickness, absence and staff turnover shows that reported sickness absence rates are lower than the previous year. NHS turnover has increased, with 66 per cent of organisations that returned data reporting that staff are leaving their organisation to take another NHS position, as opposed to retirement or to have children.
For 2004-05, NHS sickness absence levels for NHS staff have fallen slightly to 4.8 per cent, from 4.9 per cent during 2003-04. Staff groups showing the biggest improvement include nursing and midwifery, where sickness absence fell from 6.8 per cent to 5.9, a reverse on last year. As with previous years, ancillary staff have the highest reported levels of sickness absence at 7 per cent, and medical and dental staff the lowest at 1.2 per cent.
This year we asked respondents if they used the Bradford index to trigger the management of sickness absence cases, and 25 per cent said they do. Organisations are using the index in different ways to help manage absence. These include any Bradford index figure that is higher than the team average to identify cases for further management activity, and using a traffic-light approach where an index figure of 100 is green (no action); 1011,000 is amber (monitoring) and 1001plus is red (immediate action).
While the NHS sickness absence rate has fallen slightly this year, the costs associated have risen. Survey participants estimate that the overall cost of sickness per organisation has increased by 16 per cent, from nearly£3.3m last year to£3.8m this year. Reported costs were higher in larger organisations.
For the year 2004-05, NHS staff turnover rose to 14.2 per cent, from 13.2 per cent.
As with sickness absence, turnover of ancillary staff is the highest of all groups at 18.3 per cent for 2004-05. Radiography staff report the lowest levels at 7 per cent.
The most frequently reported reason for staff leaving individual organisations is to work elsewhere in the NHS. This is good news for the overall retention of NHS staff. However, data in the second table indicates a number of areas that require attention in order to reduce turnover and slow down the loss of skills through retirement and people leaving the NHS.
A lack of promotional and development opportunities, as reasons for staff turnover, have seen a sharp increase this year.
Agenda for Change , in principle, ought to improve this situation with a focus on the application of the 'skills escalator'. Also, Improving Working Lives should help with issues around carer responsibilities and the desire to start a family.
Dr Victoria Downing-Burn is a consultant with NHS Partners.
-www. futureconsiderations. com
AVERAGE COST OF SICKNESS ABSENCE Trust ype 2004-05 2003-04 Acute£5.4m£5.3m Primary£700,000£1m Foundation£4.8m n/a
STAFF TURNOVER 2004-05 2003-04 Reason for NHS staff leaving Direction of change % % New role or promotion within the NHS 66 75 Retirement 61 63 New role or promotion outside the NHS 47 50 Partner/spouse/self moving jobs out of the area 29 35 Lack of promotional opportunities 23 17 Ill health 19 18 Lack of development opportunities 18 14 Care responsibilities 15 10 To have children 4 3 Redundancy
No comments yet