Ambulance staff each had an average of two weeks off sick last year according to new figures – with workers in the Black Country having among the highest illness rates.
And there has been a surge in short term absences in January this year prompting health chiefs at West Midlands Ambulance Service Trust to monitor sickness levels among ambulance crews and emergency call handlers.
Across the trust 6.38 per cent of available working days were lost between February 2007 and January this year.
The figure is higher in the Black Country and Birmingham standing at 6.71 per cent.
The NHS target is to have six per cent of working days lost to absence each year.
Stress, back pain, depression and anxiety are some of the reasons for spells off work along with diarrhoea, vomiting, coughs, colds, flu and viral infections.
Trust bosses say there is a “high level” of staff requiring rehabilitation following surgery and for those requiring support for anxiety and depression which is resulting in a number of long term absences.
In recent weeks sickness levels have jumped again prompting ambulance service bosses to take action.
A total of 8.74 per cent of available working days were lost to sickness across the Black Country and Birmingham in January. That was the one of the highest out of all the region’s covered by the trust and almost a percentage higher than the organisation’s average of 7.72 per cent.
West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman Murray Macgregor said: “Staff are more likely to get sick because they are in contact with people who are sick.
“They are also more likely to be advised to stay off work when ill to stop the spread of infections to patients.”
He added that a number of measures are already in place to try and help workers who are sick, especially those who have a long term absence.
4 Comments
As a former nurse I sympathise - it is stressful and equal to being in any war zone !!!
I’m not suprised they have a high sickness rate being around sick people all day. Also stress must play a major factor with some of the sights they must see when attending road accidents. And then there’s the abuse they get off some members of society who they go to help
I’m surprised the time off is as short as this considering the verbal abuse and physical attacks they have to put up with. How many of us would happily go to work for a pitance knowing we were going to get bricked, sworn at,punched and kicked by our “customers” let alone the yobs in the street. They deserve our support not our condemnation.
I agree with the previous posters. As with all our emergency services they are increasingly targetted
by the lower echelons of society. Till the courts get tough with people who do these demanding and
often unnapreciated jobs then they will be stressed. Maybe it’s time for a new crime of “interfering with an emergency worker in the course of their duties”. Either that or have a van full of heavies follow them everywhere to deal with the scum in the only way they’ll understand.