{"id":169409,"date":"2025-06-09T05:06:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T05:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/169409\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T05:06:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T05:06:19","slug":"sickness-levels-among-birmingham-hospital-staff-remains-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/169409\/","title":{"rendered":"Sickness levels among Birmingham hospital staff remains high"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A report to the University Hospitals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.expressandstar.com\/news\/local-hubs\/birmingham\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Birmingham<\/a> (UHB) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NHS <\/a>Foundation Trust Board of Directors said plans were in place to tackle the issue of people being off work due to illness.<\/p>\n<p>Figures show the level of absence due to sickness stood at 5.53 per cent in March, which is above the UHB target of four per cent.<\/p>\n<p>But this is an improvement from the 6.52 per cent figure which was reported back in December.<\/p>\n<p>The report said: \u201cSickness absence remains high at 5.53% in month and 5.89% annually.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA plan is in place to reduce sickness absence which will be monitored through a sickness absence oversight group.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/b5f7c324-46ae-4a6f-9e10-d6d7853697be.PNG\"   alt=\"Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Taken from Google Street View.\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"w-full max-w-none\"\/>Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Taken from Google Street View.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe introduction of a new occupational <a href=\"https:\/\/www.expressandstar.com\/news\/health\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">health <\/a>system has enabled improved reporting and will support more data-driven and evidence-based interventions to improving the wellbeing of our people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Occupational health and counselling service activity also showed an increase in referrals in 2024\/25 compared with the year before.<\/p>\n<p>The report said: \u201cThe demand for counselling services has increased with 595 new referrals recorded since April 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnxiety remains the most common reason for seeking support, with 240 cases identified as non-work related.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWaiting times for initial appointments have exceeded to three weeks, highlighting the need for additional resources to meet growing demand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere have been over 1,000 interactions in Wellbeing Hubs since December 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany employees use these spaces for informal conversations, social interactions, and initial guidance before accessing formal support services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStress and anxiety remain the most common concerns, with seasonal peaks around Christmas and New Year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDoctors and qualified nurses were the most affected by inoculations injuries, with most injuries resulting from needle or sharp object exposure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFortunately, no cases of blood-borne virus transmission were reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Health Surveillance program recorded 418 appointments, with a noticeable increase in skin-related assessments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis rise is believed to be linked to the introduction of a new soap product,which has led to multiple staff complaints.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A report to the University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Foundation Trust Board of Directors said plans were in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,105,8823,379,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-169409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-ldrs","14":"tag-local-hubs","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114651672442704777","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}