8:40am Friday 3rd September 2010
By Katie Bond
A NEW policy introduced at the Great Western Hospital to improve the levels of sickness absence is having a positive effect according to figures released this week.
In April, the Trust introduced a new attendance management policy to help improve the attitude of managers to managing sickness absence.
At a meeting of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee held at the Civic Offices yesterday it was revealed that long term absence levels have fallen year on year since 2007 in all areas of the hospital.
Speaking at the meeting, spokeswoman for the Great Western Hospital, Leslie Maiden, said that 50 per cent of absences were made up of three main categories – stress and anxiety, musculo-skeletal and surgery and only one of these categories had shown an increase.
She added that sickness attributed to stress had fallen from 18.6 per cent last year to 14.1 per cent this year.
Oonagh Fitzgerald, director of workforce and education at GWH, said: “The Trust has focused on creating a culture of attendance at work and in reducing any barriers that may have been in the way.
“This has resulted in improvements in our attendance at work statistics and in our level of staff satisfaction and engagement.
“The Trust is, however, not complacent and there are ongoing initiatives to improve attendance at work which will impact positively on patient care.”
During the meeting, Trust members were congratulated on their work.
Councillor Brian Ford said: “You should be congratulated on these figures.
“This will not only enhance the patient care, but it will also enhance your budget.”
Miss Fitzgerald also said that sickness absence due to back and upper and lower limb injuries had significantly reduced over the past few years and that GWH was the only NHS representative in the country for the ‘Award for Health at Work’ category at the Personnel Today awards.
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