Fife health board has highest rate of staff absences in country

Fife has the highest sickness absence rate of Scotland’s territorial health boards, new figures show.

Staff illness levels at the board surged by 13% in a year as record number of nurses and midwives left NHS Scotland.

The Tories said the national increases in sickness absence and worker departures, as well as a new high of £175 million spending on bank and agency nurses, showed a “crisis in staffing” at the health service.

The sickness absence rate – the proportion of lost hours to total contracted hours – in Fife was 5.76%, compared with Tayside (5.03%) and Scotland (5.39%).

The Scottish Government wants NHS boards to achieve a sickness absence rate of 4% or lower.

An NHS Scotland report said staff illness can lead to cancelled appointments and procedures, pile pressure on staff and force boards to fork out for expensive bank and agency staff.

Meanwhile, there were 4,324 nursing and midwifery departures from NHS Scotland in 2017/18, more than a third higher than in 2011/12.

Liz Smith, a Fife MSP for the Scottish Conservatives, said: “NHS Fife has warned for a long time that staff are approaching retirement yet there has been insufficient information about what jobs will be filled.

“Over 11 years in charge of the NHS in Scotland, the SNP have failed to give the public any confidence things will get better.”

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “NHS Scotland’s workforce has increased by over 10% under this government to historically high levels and has risen by almost 500 in the past year alone to nearly 140,000.”

She added: “We are continuing to drive down the use of agencies and reducing vacancy rates will be supported further by our new safe staffing legislation as we work with boards to support their efforts in staff recruitment.”

Over 11 years in charge the SNP have failed to give the public any confidence things will get better. LIZ SMITH MSP