Concerns raised over sickness absence levels at trust which runs Stafford hospital

The absence rate at University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) over the 12 months to May was 5.2 per cent, down from 5.3 per cent in the previous month.

This is higher than the ‘expected standard’ of 3.4 per cent, and while UHNM’s rate is comparable to other acute trusts, it has been hovering around the five per cent mark since the start of the pandemic.

Stress and anxiety continues to be the biggest reason for staff being off sick, followed by gastrointestinal problems and musculoskeletal issues.

The trust, which runs County Hospital in Stafford, is now set to carry out a ‘deep dive’ into the issue of stress and anxiety experienced by UHNM workers, which is not always solely work-related.

UHNM board members were given up an update on the sickness absence position at their meeting this week, and were also told that staff turnover rates and the use of agency staff at the trust were both falling.

Trust chairman David Wakefield, while welcoming the improvements, expressed doubts over whether UHNM would achieve its sickness absence target.

David Wakefield said: “You ought to be congratulated on the improvements we’ve made on turnover and on agency use. The successes of the investments we’ve made is evidenced by these results.

“The sickness absence still bothers me. For as long as I can remember, we keep hearing about sickness absence being stubborn – it doesn’t move, and the causes are predominately the same, and we’re always having a review on them.

“Are you confident that we can actually get this thing down? Because I’m not.”

Ms Haire said the 3.4 per cent target was ‘apsirational’ and a five per cent absence rate was now the ‘normalised’ position.

She told the board that while work was being done to reduce absence rates, it was unlikely that there would be a significant drop any time soon.

Ms Haire said: “We track this in our performance review conversations. We talk every month with the divisions on the actions they are taking. And we’re asking them to shift the mindset a little bit in terms of thinking about engagement overall, and not necessarily just policy compliance.

“I can’t give you assurance that we’re going to see a significant downward trajectory in this area. I think we’re going to see this for some time to come now.”

Mr Wakefield suggested that a small reduction in sickness absence could make a big difference to the trust’s performance.

He said: “I’m just conscious that month after month I see the causes are stress and anxiety, following by gastrointestinal problems.

"I’m not a clinician so I don’t know how we tackle this. But five per cent has been normalised, and that’s five per cent of a very large pay bill. If we could knock a couple of per cent off that it wouldn’t half make a difference.”

Staff turnover rate at UHNM fell to 7.7 per cent in May – the trust has now been consistently below the target rate of 11 per cent for 20 months. And the percentage of the pay bill spend on agency staff fell from 3.3 per cent to 2.6 per cent.

Helena said: “We do think that as we get to higher levels of permanent employment, that should have a knock-on effect in terms of some sickness absence.”