Welsh Conservatives call for a feasibility study into prioritising treatment for NHS staff

New data shows that the average NHS Wales employee loses an equivalent of one working day a month due to sickness, prompting calls from the Welsh Conservatives for a feasibility study to be conducted into giving NHS staff priority treatment.

Published today by the Welsh Government, data drawn from NHS staff records has revealed that staff sickness rates remain stubbornly high with an absence rate across all health organisations at 5.3%.

This marks just a slight improvement on the 5.6% figure recorded in the same period – January to March – last year.

In the ensuing months rates subsequently improved but were later defined by a steady rise.

The Welsh Ambulance Service recorded the highest sickness rate at 6.9%, despite improving from 8.3% the previous year.

Cwm Taf is the worst performing health board on this measure, with an absence rate of 5.7% for all staff.

The Welsh Health Staff Survey, published last year, found that staff felt a personal responsibility to attend work while feeling unwell.

In the same survey, 70% of NHS staff in Wales reported having recently attended work despite not feeling well enough to perform their duties.

Thirty three per cent of NHS staff in Wales reported having suffered work-related stress and/or being unwell as a result of work related stress in the past year.

Commenting on the data, Welsh Conservative Shadow Secretary for Health, Angela Burns AM, said:

“The data is a very clear indication that NHS staff are bearing the brunt of an NHS creaking at the seams.
“Our hardworking NHS staff perform an incredibly valuable service which is becoming increasingly difficult to carry out.

“A combination of poor funding, understaffing, a lack of integration between health and social services, and an ever-rising demand is clearly taking its toll on the health of overworked staff.

“The Labour-led Welsh Government needs to up their investment in frontline services and take urgent action to improve recruitment and retention initiatives.

“The Welsh Government must also give serious consideration to conducting a feasibility study into prioritising treatment for NHS staff, particularly those suffering from chronic orthopaedic and skeletal conditions.

“The quicker their problems can be addressed, the sooner they can get back to work. The NHS cannot be healthy without a healthy workforce.”