HSE staff took 100,000 sick days in one month

[MsAnneThrope]

I grabbed a bunch of newspapers yesterday and only got around to yesterday's Examiner now. And it leads with that headline, saying HSE work absences double the private sector average:

HSE staff took 100,000 sick days in one month

In light of the recent comments by the IMO, and their passing of a 'no confidence' motion on the Government's health policies it really is time we grasped the nettle on the HSE and sorted it out once and for all.

How can this be achieved? Absenteeism like this is just not on.

[Question R24U]

I grabbed a bunch of newspapers yesterday and only got around to yesterday's Examiner now. And it leads with that headline, saying HSE work absences double the private sector average:

HSE staff took 100,000 sick days in one month

In light of the recent comments by the IMO, and their passing of a 'no confidence' motion on the Government's health policies it really is time we grasped the nettle on the HSE and sorted it out once and for all.

How can this be achieved? Absenteeism like this is just not on.

Discipline any abuser of the sick pay scheme. Sack any repeat abusers (it would be far cheaper than redundancy). Then tackle presenteeism.

[Fairplay]

We would need some analysis of this figure which does sound horrific.

Who was taking the sick leave? Is the HSE managers junior and senior who are taking the leave rather than sitting in an office doing very little.

Many in HSE are now on short term contracts and probably not entitled to paid sick leave.

Medical staff, given cutbacks/non replacement, might actually be sick - worn out. Hospitals may not be the healthiest place to work.

Sick leave may be a sympton of the bad morale in the HSE. Maybe a change of Minister and top management would help?!

[MsAnneThrope]

There's a reasonable breakdown of the departments involved in the full article in the Examiner

[mccafferty cat]

If this is true, then on an annual basis, the HSE is suffering a number of sick-days which equate to the working years of around 4,500 employees.

How about we sack that number? Even things up a little

[Question R24U]

“Absence management has been identified by the HSE as a key service priority which can provide considerable cost benefits if appropriate controls are put in place,” a spokesperson said.

What can one say to the above, when some hospitals have 2 sick days per month per employee.

[odie1kanobe]

So this is a shock ?

Time to weed out the hospitals with above average rates and start sacking people or retiring them as unfit to work.

[smitchy2]

I have heard in one region that many staff take sick leave during the week but then make themselves available for working on Sundays for the extra salary.

This is just 1 example. I would agree a breakdown by area and level is needed.

[Fairplay]

Even the HSE agrees they have no shortage of administrators/managers at all levels. And last year they employed a new HR supremo over the normal high scale with approval from Harney.

So why aren't all these people monitoring things like sick leave and dealing with what looks like abuse. The article mentions high rates among porters, catering staff and i can't see why they would be as stressed out as medical staff whose rates seem to be much lower.

Why

[wexfordman]

Thats 1.2m man hours in a year!!! How does the HSE cope with such massive loss in manpower